claim to fame
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Reason for being regarded as noteworthy.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Moldova ’s main claim to fame is King Stephen ~ the Great, who defeated the Ottomans in a great fifteenth century battle.
His main claim to fame was that he made the Chiquita guitar that Billy Gibbons endorsed about ten, fifteen years ago.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “claim to fame” mean?
Reason for being regarded as noteworthy.
Is “claim to fame” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.