illustrious
adj.adj. very famous and respected because of great achievements. You use this to describe someone with a long, successful career.
adj. highly distinguished, renowned, or eminent. Often describes a career, history, or person of significant accomplishment.
She enjoyed an illustrious career as a concert pianist.
The university is proud of its illustrious alumni, which include several Nobel Prize winners and world leaders.
After decades of public service, the senator retired with an illustrious reputation for integrity and bipartisan cooperation.
From Latin illūstris (“bright, shining; distinguished, prominent, illustrious”) + -ous (suffix forming adjectives from nouns, to denote possession or presence of a quality in any degree). Illūstris is derived from illūstrō (“to brighten, illuminate; to make famous or illustrious”), from in- (“in, inside”) + lūstrō (“to purify by making a sacrifice; to brighten, illuminate”) (from lūstrō (“purificatory sacrifice”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European lewk- (“bright; to shine”) or lewh₃- (“to wash”)).
Typically used attributively before a noun; often pairs with 'career', 'history', or 'reputation'.