eponymous

adjective

epon·​y·​mous i-ˈpä-nə-məs How to pronounce eponymous (audio)
e-
: of, relating to, or being the person or thing for whom or which something is named : of, relating to, or being an eponym

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What’s in a name? If the name is eponymous, a name is in the name: an eponymous brand, café, river, or ice cream is named for someone or something. And because English is beastly sometimes, the one lending the name to the brand, café, river, or ice cream can also be described as eponymous. This means that if Noah Webster owns a bookstore called “Webster’s Books,” it’s an eponymous bookstore, and Noah himself is the bookstore’s eponymous owner. Most of the time, though, we see eponymous describing a thing named for a person—for example, an eponymous brand named for a designer, or a band’s eponymous album titled only with the band’s name. The related word eponym is less ambiguous: it refers to the one for whom someone or something is named. At our hypothetical “Webster’s Books,” Noah Webster is the bookstore’s eponym. Appropriately enough, the Greek root of both words is onyma, meaning “name.”

Examples of eponymous in a Sentence

… Ramayana, an Indian epic which chronicles, in sixty thousand verses, the adventures of its eponymous hero Rama … Leila Hadley, Give Me the World, (1958) 1999
"Cool Britannia," which goes back to Ben and Jerry's eponymous ice cream in Spring 1996, met its sell-by-date within weeks … Harold Perkin, Times Literary Supplement, 18 Dec. 1998
Karen Hubert Allison, the eponymous (if you count middle names) creator of Hubert's, didn't know she was making dining history … Peter Kaminsky, New York Times Book Review, 11 May 1997
Recent Examples on the Web
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Based on the eponymous bestselling novel, this first-ever adaptation follows Crisóstomo (Santoro), a solitary fisherman who longs for a son. Anna Marie De La Fuente, Variety, 4 Oct. 2025 Vince is the screwup, a mostly-former drug and gambling addict, while Jake is a successful restaurateur, running the eponymous club/restaurant Black Rabbit in Manhattan. Andrew Bernard, The Washington Examiner, 3 Oct. 2025 These chemical efforts were spearheaded in part by Lord Kelvin (creator of the eponymous temperature scale). Emma R. Hasson, Scientific American, 3 Oct. 2025 Elsewhere, 300 archival pieces, mainly from the eponymous brand Yohan Serfaty, who died in 2013, and rare prototypes from his first collections for Y/Project, are being auctioned by his foundation from Saturday to Monday. Lily Templeton, Footwear News, 30 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for eponymous

Word History

Etymology

see eponym

First Known Use

1846, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of eponymous was in 1846

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Cite this Entry

“Eponymous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eponymous. Accessed 10 Oct. 2025.

Medical Definition

eponymous

adjective
epon·​y·​mous i-ˈpän-ə-məs, e- How to pronounce eponymous (audio)
: of, relating to, or named after an eponym
those eponymous genetic conditions … such as … Friedreich's ataxiaR. O. Brady
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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