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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the popular vote,

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the bedrock of cool kid democracy.

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All right, which of these words is closest in meaning to renown?

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And here are the potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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All right, let's start by breaking down "renown."

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The prefix "re" can mean again, like how you

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restart your computer when you encounter the rainbow circle of death.

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Trust us, we know it well right here at Shmoop.

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The root "nown" comes from the Latin root

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"nomare," which means "to name."

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Got it? So, together, that's "to name again."

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All right, so let's see which of our answers fits that bill.

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Okay so first up is A - repossess.

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Well, that has the same prefix as renown, but

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"repossess" means to take something back,

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like when a ghost comes back for a second haunting.

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It doesn't sound right, even though that's the spirit.

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[ chuckles ] All right. We can also eliminate B - shame,

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which is the feeling you get when you know you did something wrong and feel bad about it.

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We don't have to get into it, but politicians don't feel that.

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Then there's C - shun,

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which means to keep away from or avoid.

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A synonym for shun is

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"renounce," which sounds like "renown," but they mean very different things.

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So that leaves us just with D - fame,

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which means to be widely recognized, especially by name.

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It's a synonym of "renown."

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So the correct answer is D - fame.

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Just don't let it go to your head.

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[ gasp ]

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