splendor

English

Alternative forms

• splendour (British)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman splendur, splendour, or directly from its source Latin splendor, from the verb splendere (“to shine”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsplɛndə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛndə(r)

Noun

splendor (usually uncountable; plural splendors)

1. Great light, luster or brilliance.
   • Rudyard Kipling The Just So Stories; How the Rhinoceros got its skin:

     "Once upon a time on an uninhabited island on the shores of the Red Sea, there lived a Parsee from whose hat the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental-splendour."

2. Magnificent appearance, display or grandeur.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, The China Governess^[1]:

     The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.

   The splendor of the Queen's coronation was without comparison.

3. Great fame or glory.

Usage notes

Splendor is the standard spelling in American English, and splendour in modern British English.

Translations

• Dutch: pracht f and m, grandeur f
• Spanish: esplendor (es) m

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Latin

Noun

splendor (genitive splendōris); m, third declension

1. sheen, brightness, brilliance, lustre, splendour

Inflection

Number	Singular	Plural
nominative	splendor	splendōrēs
genitive	splendōris	splendōrum
dative	splendōrī	splendōribus
accusative	splendōrem	splendōrēs
ablative	splendōre	splendōribus
vocative	splendor	splendōrēs