ignominious

[ig-nuh-min-ee-uhs]

adjective

1. marked by or attended with ignominy; discreditable; humiliating.

   an ignominious retreat.

   Synonyms: shameful, dishonorable, disgraceful, degrading

2. bearing or deserving ignominy; contemptible.

   Synonyms: ignoble, despicable

Other Word Forms

• ignominiously adverb
• ignominiousness noun
• nonignominious adjective
• nonignominiously adverb
• nonignominiousness noun
• unignominious adjective
• unignominiously adverb
• unignominiousness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of ignominious¹

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English word from Latin word ignōminiōsus. See ignominy, -ous

Example Sentences

After Odd’s ignominious exit from the dinner table, he and Buddy reach a fragile peace back at school, then lose touch.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Their ignominious falls from grace are clear in the documentaries they feature in, from the glint of their handcuffs to the colour of their prison uniforms.

Read more on BBC

Despite the ignominious end to his career, Diggs spent many years as a stellar legislator who became, as his biographer Marion Orr writes, “the most powerful Black politician on Capitol Hill.”

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In 2002, in perhaps one of the most ignominious episodes, the recycling center was dismantling Navy artillery shells — that were supposedly inert — when one exploded and a chunk of metal launched onto Jordan High’s campus.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Bush, had proclaimed the birth of a “new world order,” and the less said about that ignominious phrase, the better.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• disgraceful 
• embarrassing www.thesaurus.com
• shameful