appellation

noun ap·pel·la·tion \ ˌa-pə-ˈlā-shən \

|Updated on: 10 Aug 2018

Definition of appellation

1 : an identifying name or title : designation

was entitled to the appellation "doctor"

2 : a geographical name (as of a region, village, or vineyard) under which a winegrower is authorized to identify and market wine; also : the area designated by such a name

3 archaic : the act of calling by a name

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Recent Examples of appellation from the Web

Less celebrated villages such as Maranges, Marsannay and Irancy, and the auxiliary appellations of the Côte Chalonnaise, are also becoming pricey: Bottles that were once $20-$35 are now $45-$60.

— patrick comiskey, latimes.com, "Alternatives to Burgundy, from Burgundy," 29 June 2018
Cassis, a diminutive coastal appellation southeast of Marseille, is the only AOC in Provence to produce mainly white wine.

— ellen bhang, BostonGlobe.com, "These Provençal pours are not the rosé you expect," 28 May 2018
The official appellation, Viños de Madrid, encompasses three provinces with widely differing climate and geology.

— New York Times, "Reviving Ancient Spanish Vineyards, Building New Traditions," 24 May 2018
Wines from the classic appellations (AOCs) in the Cotes de Beaune and Cotes de Nuits, from villages such as Volnay or Meursault or Chambolle-Musigny, are prohibitively expensive.

— patrick comiskey, latimes.com, "Alternatives to Burgundy, from Burgundy," 29 June 2018
But is that truly where every up-and-coming appellation has to end?

— esther mobley, San Francisco Chronicle, "The rise of the Red Hills of Lake County," 1 June 2018
Higher up the slope (and the hierarchy) are the wines from vineyards entitled to the Meursault appellation.

— jay mcinerney, Town & Country, "Meet Jean-Marc Roulot, the Actor Turned Top French Winemaker," 29 May 2018
While there is great diversity in the land, the appellation system has not kept up.

— New York Times, "Reviving Ancient Spanish Vineyards, Building New Traditions," 24 May 2018
The wine is Bergerac, an appellation in the Périgord region of southwest France, just east of Bordeaux.

— mike dunne, sacbee, "A French wine mystery: Where's the Bergerac?," 6 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'appellation.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Ask a Frenchman named "Jacques" his name, and you may very well get the reply, "Je m'appelle Jacques." The French verb appeller means "to call (by a name)," so Jacques' answer literally translates to "I call myself Jacques." Knowing the function of "appeller" makes it easy to remember that "appellation" refers to the name or title by which something is called or known. "Appeller" and "appellation" also share a common ancestor - the Latin appellare, meaning "to call or summon," formed by combining the prefix ad- ("to") with another verb, "pellere" ("to drive"). "Appellare" is also the root of our word appeal (by way of Anglo-French and Middle English), as well as "appellate," referring to a kind of court where appeals are heard.