Homage
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A demonstration of respect, as towards a person after his or her retirement or death. countable, uncountable
"I ſought no homage from the Race that vvrite; / I kept, like Aſian Monarchs, from their ſight: […]"
- 2 respectful deference wordnet
- 3 An artistic work imitating another in a flattering style. countable
"He likes to tell people that it's a Hitchcockian thriller, but that's kind of like saying Happy Gilmore is a homage to Woody Allen."
- 4 In feudalism, the formal oath of a vassal to honor his or her lord's rights. countable, historical, uncountable
"We'll do thee homage, and be rul'd by thee, / Love thee as our commander and our king."
- 1 To pay reverence to by external action. obsolete, transitive
- 2 To cause to pay homage. obsolete, transitive
"The Austrian Crowns and Romes seven Hills she shook; >br>To her great Neptune Homag'd all his Streams"
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue."
Etymology
From Middle English homage, from Old French homage, hommage, from Medieval Latin homināticum (“homage, the service of a vassal or 'man'”), from Latin homō (“a man, in Medieval Latin a vassal”) + -āticum (noun-forming suffix). The American pronunciations in /-ɑːʒ/ and with silent h are due to confusion with the nearly synonymous doublet hommage, which is indeed pronounced /oʊˈmɑːʒ/.
Related phrases
More for "homage"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.