DictionaryAI

eponymous

adjective
USuh-PON-uh-muhs/əˈpɑnəməs/UKi-PON-i-muhs/ɪˈpɒnɪməs/

2 meanings of eponymous

Practice

  1. 1
    named afteradjective
    Of a thing: named after a person or entity, as an album titled with its artist's name is.

    After three hit records, the duo finally released an eponymous album.

    Diners line up outside the chef's eponymous restaurant to try her signature dish.

    UsageUsed before a noun: an eponymous album, her eponymous restaurant.

    Similarself-titled

    Note

    Usage has turned the name around: an eponymous album or restaurant is the thing that bears a name, not the one that gave it, the reverse of the name-giving sense closest to the Greek. A record titled with its artist's name is the classic case, like Madonna's eponymous album of 1983. Both directions are common now, and the noun beside eponymous shows which is meant.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

  2. 2
    name giveradjective
    Being or relating to the person or thing after which someone or something is named, and so serving as an eponym.

    The novel follows its eponymous heroine from a Kansas farm to the courts of Europe.

    The restaurant's eponymous chef still greets diners at the door most nights.

    UsageCommon phrases include the eponymous hero and the eponymous heroine of a book or film.

    Similartitular

    Note

    The Greek epōnumos meant "giving one's name to something", and this sense keeps that direction: the eponym is the giver. Its home is the title character, such as the eponymous hero of Robinson Crusoe, but it reaches anything that lends a name. When Nicholas Drayson's novel A Guide to the Birds of East Africa speaks of the hadada's eponymous call, the call is the sound the bird is named for.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

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Origin

Ancient Greek epṓnumos, meaning "surnamed," "named in a significant manner," or "giving one's name to something," combined with the English adjective suffix -ous.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts