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august

August proper noun · adjective · verb
SayAW-guhst/ˈɔɡəst/UK/ˈɔːɡəst/
As an adjective or verbaw-GUST

6 meanings of august

Practice

  1. 1
    monthproper noun · August
    The eighth month of the year in the Roman, Julian, and Gregorian calendars, coming after July and before September.

    The new tariff takes effect on August 1, so importers are rushing to ship their goods before then.

    It was unusually cool for August, and we needed jackets on the porch in the evenings.

    UsageIn August, but on August 1; written with a capital A, unlike the adjective august.

  2. 2
    grandadjective
    Having a grand, dignified, and noble character that inspires awe and deep respect.

    The novelist was elected to the academy, an august body of writers and scholars.

    The ceremony took place in the august surroundings of the old cathedral.

    UsageUsually before a noun, as in an august body; said aw-GUST, with the stress unlike the month.

    Similardistinguished, venerable, grand, stately, majestic

    Oppositehumble, lowly

    Note

    Latin augustus, "majestic", grew from augeō, "to increase": what is august has been made great, and the month August carries the same word. The comparative may be auguster, as in Gilbert Burnet's "a much auguster sense", or more august.

  3. 3
    noble birthadjective
    Belonging by birth to a noble family, said of a person or of the family line itself.

    The count could trace his august ancestry back to the first kings of the region.

    Despite his august birth, he chose to work as a village schoolteacher.

    Similarnoble, aristocratic

    Oppositehumble, lowly

    Note

    Here the grandeur is inherited: the word attaches to a family line (lineage, ancestry, birth, a noble house) as in Walter Fitz Patrick's account of the Guises, who traced their "august lineage" back to Charlemagne. Latin augustus already meant "imperial, royal", and in such phrases this sense is hard to pull apart from the "majestic" meaning.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Walter Fitz Patrick described the Guises as tracing their august lineage to Charlemagne. en.wiktionary.org
    • Latin augustus had the meanings imperial and royal. en.wiktionary.org

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    verbobsolete
    To make something real or fulfilled; to bring it to realization.
    Note

    The verb is made from the month's name and turns up in religious verse: in Philip James Bailey's The Mystic and Other Poems (1855), man's heavenly hopes are "augusted", carried toward fulfillment. It reads as the "ripen" verb turned figurative, hopes brought to fruit.

  2. 5
    noun
    Alternative form of auguste: a circus clown who plays the clumsy, foolish partner to a neat whiteface clown.
  3. 6
    verbobsolete
    To cause something to become ripe; to ripen it.

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 2–3

Either French auguste (“noble, stately”) or Latin augustus (“majestic, venerable; imperial, royal”) is the source, and both go back to Latin augeō (“to increase, enlarge, spread”). The word is a doublet of Augustus.

Meaning 1

Through early Middle English August(us) and Old English Agustus from Latin augustus, the name of the month, taken from the title Augustus ("venerable") of the Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus.

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts