kudos

English

WOTD – 17 March 2008

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkjuːdɒs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkuː.doʊz/, /ˈkuː.doʊs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Ancient Greek κῦδος (kûdos, “praise, renown”).

Noun

kudos (uncountable)

1. Praise; accolades.

   The talented, young playwright received much kudos for his new drama.

   • 2014 November 9, John Oliver, “The Lottery”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 1, episode 24, HBO:

     And… and to that… to that Turkish horse, I say this, “You should not step on people’s balls, but, in this solitary instance, kudos, horse, kudos.”

2. Credit for one's achievements.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess^[1]:

     Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.

Usage notes

• The noun kudos was originally a mass noun, but it is now sometimes treated as a plural noun, either as a plurale tantum, or as the plural of a new noun kudo, contrary to the original Greek κῦδος (kûdos), which is a singular noun. The American pronunciation implies this plural usage, which many authorities nevertheless consider erroneous.

Translations

praise, accolades

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 名譽, 叻

  Mandarin: 榮譽 (zh), 荣誉 (zh) (róngyù), 聲望 (zh), 声望 (zh) (shēngwàng), 名譽 (zh), 名誉 (zh) (míngyù)

• Dutch: krediet (nl) n
• Finnish: maine (fi), kiitos (fi), kehut pl, ylistys (fi)
• French: louange (fr) f, gloire (fr) f
• German: Ruhm (de) m, Ehre (de) f
• Greek: δόξα (el) f (dóxa), φήμη (el) f (fími), τιμή (el) f (timí), κύρος (el) n (kýros)
• Hungarian: hírnév (hu)
• Icelandic: frægð f, heiður (is) m, upphefð f

• Japanese: 称賛 (しょうさん, shōsan), 栄光 (ja) (えいこう, eikō), 名声 (ja) (めいせい, meisei), 名誉 (ja) (めいよ, meiyo)
• Latin: laus f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: heder (no) m, ros (no) m

  Nynorsk: heider m, ros m

• Polish: chwała (pl) f
• Portuguese: elogio (pt) m, louvor (pt) m
• Russian: сла́ва (ru) f (sláva), хвала́ (ru) f (xvalá), похвала́ (ru) f (poxvalá) (praise), одобре́ние (ru) n (odobrénije) (approval)
• Spanish: elogio (es) m

Etymology 2

Noun

kudos

1. plural of kudo

---

Finnish

Etymology

kutoa (“to weave”) +‎ -s

Noun

kudos

1. (textiles) fabric (texture of a cloth)
2. (biology) tissue (group of similar cells that function together to do a specific job)

Declension

Inflection of kudos (Kotus type 39/vastaus, no gradation)
nominative		kudos	kudokset
genitive		kudoksen	kudosten kudoksien
partitive		kudosta	kudoksia
illative		kudokseen	kudoksiin
		singular	plural
nominative		kudos	kudokset
accusative	nom.	kudos	kudokset
	gen.	kudoksen
genitive		kudoksen	kudosten kudoksien
partitive		kudosta	kudoksia
inessive		kudoksessa	kudoksissa
elative		kudoksesta	kudoksista
illative		kudokseen	kudoksiin
adessive		kudoksella	kudoksilla
ablative		kudokselta	kudoksilta
allative		kudokselle	kudoksille
essive		kudoksena	kudoksina
translative		kudokseksi	kudoksiksi
instructive		—	kudoksin
abessive		kudoksetta	kudoksitta
comitative		—	kudoksineen

Compounds

• aivokudos
• arpikudos
• ihokudos
• ihonalaiskudos
• kudoksensiirto
• kudosvaurio
• sidekudos

Related terms

• kudonnainen
• kudonta
• kutoa