coronate means to crown (a sovereign or champion). It carries an Arena rating of 1492, earned across 10 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, coronate ranks #2,671 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #3,411 of 42,747 for Qualifying, #5,518 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #5,750 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words.
coronate is pronounced /ˈkɒɹəˌneɪt/.
Why “coronate” is a great word
To formally crown a sovereign or champion in a ceremonial rite. From Latin corōnātus, the perfect passive participle of corōnāre ('to crown'), from corōna ('crown, garland') + the verbal suffix -āre; first attested in English in 1623. Unlike 'crown,' a common verb for the general act, or 'inaugurate,' which formally begins a term without the specific ritual, to coronate is the precise enactment of investiture. It is the heavy, cold weight of metal settling on the brow, the precise drape of velvet and ermine across the shoulders, and the deafening silence before the first cry of acclamation—the instant when a person is translated, irrevocably, into an idea, heavy and irreversible, like a door closing on who they were.
Etymology
First attested in 1623; borrowed from Latin corōnātus (“crowned”), perfect passive participle of corōnō (“to crown”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from corōna (“crown”) + -ō.
verb
- To crown (a sovereign or champion).e.g.“[…] and instead of Coronating your deserved Worth […]” — 1657, Tomlinson, translating Jean de Renou's A Medicinal Dispensatory, page 475
adj
- Having a crest or a crownlike appendage, a corona.
- Having the coronal feathers lengthened or otherwise distinguished.
- Girt about the spire with a row of tubercles or spines.
- Having or wearing a crown, crowned; (as a participle) crowned, coronated.e.g.“The duke of Normandy / William conquerour […] Was coronate at London / […]” — 1513, Henry Bradshaw, The Holy Lyfe and History of Saynt Werburge, page 181:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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