grandeur

Borrowed from Middle French grandeur, from Old French grandur, from grant (French grand), from Latin grandis (“grown up, great”).

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹæn.d͡ʒɚ/, /ˈɡɹæn.d͡ʒʊɚ/, /ˈɡɹæn.d(j)ʊɚ/, /ˈɡɹæn.d(j)ɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  • Homophone: grander (one pronunciation)

grandeur (countable and uncountable, plural grandeurs)

1. The state of being grand or splendid; magnificence.
   • 1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems:

     I wrapp’d myself in grandeur then,
     And donn’d a visionary crown ——

   • 2020 August 26, Tim Dunn, “Great railway bores of our time!”, in Rail, page 44:

     So much of what followed from the drawing boards of others will have been designed with the demands, effort and grandeur of Primrose Hill [tunnel] in the back of their minds.

   • 2023 March 21, Pjotr Sauer, “Putin’s two-day charm offensive with Xi underlines who’s boss”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     In a tightly choreographed ceremony filled with imperial grandeur, Xi and Putin then walked towards each other and met in the middle, smiling as they shook hands.

2. Nobility (state of being noble).
3. (archaic, rare) Greatness; largeness; tallness; loftiness.

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “grandeur”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

From Old French grandur, from grand +‎ -eur.

• IPA^(key): /ɡʁɑ̃.dœʁ/

• Audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

• Homophone: grandeurs

grandeur f (plural grandeurs)

1. size
2. (physics, mathematics) magnitude, quantity
3. (astronomy) magnitude
4. grandeur

• folie des grandeurs
• grandeur d’âme
• grandeur nature
• ordre de grandeur
• Votre Grandeur

• taille
• largeur
• hauteur

• “grandeur”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Old French grandur.

• IPA^(key): /ɡʀã.døːʀ/

grandeur f (plural grandeurs)

1. size