cause célèbre

See also: cause celebre

English

Alternative forms

• cause celebre (US)

Etymology

From French cause (“cause, case”) + célèbre (“famous”), in the title of an 18th-century compilation of famous legal cases, Causes célèbres.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːz sɛˈlɛbɹ(ə)/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔz səˈlɛb/, /-ˈlɛbɹə/, sometimes /-ˈlɛbɹeɪ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (like French) IPA^(key): /ˈkoʊz seɪˈlɛbɹ(ə)/

Noun

cause célèbre (plural causes célèbres)

1. (chiefly UK) An issue or incident (originally, a legal case) arousing widespread controversy or public debate.
   • 2021 February 15, Jack Nicas, “Parler, a Social Network That Attracted Trump Fans, Returns Online”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Getting iced out by the tech giants turned Parler into a cause célèbre for conservatives who complained they were being censored, as well as a test case for the openness of the internet.

Translations

issue or incident arousing heated public debate

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 引起轟動的事件／引起轰动的事件 (yǐnqǐ hōngdòng de shìjiàn)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: cause célèbre f
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: kohuoikeudenkäynti (legal case)
• French: fait polémique m
• Italian: caso famoso m
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: acontecimento polémico m
• Russian: гро́мкое де́ло n (grómkoje délo)
• Serbo-Croatian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: tema de interés m
• Swedish: cause célèbre (sv) n
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• cause célèbre on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “cause célèbre”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “cause célèbre”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “cause celebre”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.