tantamount

C1 Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈtæntəˌmaʊnt/ UK /ˈtæntəˌmaʊnt/ See IPA manual

Freq #39531

Meanings

1

adj
Equal in effect or meaning to something else, even if not technically the same.

Staying silent now would be tantamount to admitting guilt.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · equal in effect or meaning... equivalent

Simplified etymology

Tantamount comes from Italian tanto montare, meaning “to amount to as much.”

Etymology

First attested in English in 1628. Either inherited from an unattested Middle English borrowing from Anglo-Norman tant amount, from amunter, from tant (“as much”) amonter (“to amount to”) or borrowed in the early 17th century from Italian tanto montare (“to amount to as much”).

tant amount xno

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities

External links

# tantamount

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C1
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˈtæntəˌmaʊnt/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈtæntəˌmaʊnt/
**Frequency rank:** 39531

## Meanings
1. Equal in effect or meaning to something else, even if not technically the same.

## Examples
- Staying silent now would be tantamount to admitting guilt.

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: tant amount

## Etymology
First attested in English in 1628. Either inherited from an unattested Middle English borrowing from Anglo-Norman tant amount, from amunter, from tant (“as much”) amonter (“to amount to”) or borrowed in the early 17th century from Italian tanto montare (“to amount to as much”).

## AI Etymology
Tantamount is first attested in English in 1628. Either inherited from an unattested Middle English borrowing from Anglo-Norman tant amount, from amunter, from tant (“as much”) amonter (“to amount to”) or borrowed in the early 17th century from Italian tanto montare (“to amount to as much”). In present-day use, it means equal in effect or meaning to something else, even if not technically the same.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

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