What lorem ipsum dolor sit amet means
Updated
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" comes from a phrase by Cicero that means "pain itself, because it is pain". The standard placeholder text is a cut and scrambled version of that sentence, so as a whole it has no meaning. Most of its words are real Latin, but some are broken fragments, and the grammar does not hold together.
The standard lorem ipsum passage
This is the paragraph most designers know. It is the version printed on lipsum.com and used by most generators:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Where the words come from
The text comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of De finibus bonorum et malorum ("On the ends of good and evil"), a book on ethics that Cicero wrote in 45 BC. In this part, a speaker defends the Epicurean view that people should seek pleasure with reason and not on impulse.
The Latin scholar Richard McClintock found the source. He looked up the rare word consectetur in classical texts and found it in this passage. He published the finding in a 1994 letter to Before & After magazine.
The Cicero Latin next to the scrambled text
The table puts each part of Cicero's original next to the lorem ipsum version. The Latin is from the 1914 Loeb edition.
| Cicero, De finibus 1.10.32–33 | Lorem ipsum |
|---|---|
| Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit, amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, | Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, |
| sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt | sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt |
| ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. | ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. |
| Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? | Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. |
| Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur? | Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. |
| (1.10.33) … excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. | Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. |
The first change is the most famous one. Cicero wrote dolorem ipsum, "pain itself". The dummy text drops the first two letters and starts with lorem, which is not a Latin word.
A likely reason is visible in the 1914 Loeb edition, translated by H. Rackham. In the archive.org scan, the Latin on page 34 ends with "Neque porro quisquam est qui do-". The next Latin page, page 36, starts with "lorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit". Someone who copied from the top of page 36 would start with "lorem ipsum". The French Latinist Philippe Cibois checked the same page break and also matched a 1970s Letraset sheet to the Loeb pages.
What "lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" means, phrase by phrase
This table covers the opening sentence, up to "magna aliqua". The middle column shows the word Cicero wrote. The right column gives the meaning of Cicero's word, because the lorem ipsum form often has none.
| Lorem ipsum | Cicero wrote | Real Latin? | Meaning of the source word |
|---|---|---|---|
| lorem | dolorem | No, a fragment | pain (as the object of a verb) |
| ipsum | ipsum | Yes | itself |
| dolor sit | quia dolor sit | Yes | because it is pain |
| amet | amet | Yes | (that he) loves |
| consectetur | consectetur | Yes | (that he) pursues |
| adipiscing | adipisci | No, the ending was changed | to obtain |
| elit | velit | No, a fragment | (that he) wants |
| sed | sed | Yes | but |
| do | not in the source | Added | nothing here |
| eiusmod | eius modi | Two real words joined | of that kind |
| tempor | tempora | No, a fragment | times |
| incididunt | incidunt | No, letters were added | (they) occur |
| ut | ut | Yes | in which, so that |
| labore et dolore | labore et dolore | Yes | through toil and pain |
| magna aliqua | magnam aliquam | Real words, wrong endings | some great (pleasure) |
"Dolor sit amet" looks like one phrase, but it is not. In Cicero, dolor sit ends one clause ("because it is pain") and amet starts the next ("he loves"). The dummy text joins them and drops quia, "because", so the words no longer fit together.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet in English
Cicero's full sentence asks who would want pain for its own sake. H. Rackham's 1914 English translation of it reads:
"Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure."
Rackham's translation is public domain. The English on lipsum.com is labelled as Rackham's, but its first sentence differs from the printed book. The book has "this mistaken idea of reprobating pleasure and extolling pain arose", and lipsum.com has "denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born".
Some copies of the placeholder spell the word "consectetuer", as in "lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit". That is the same text with a different spelling, so the English meaning does not change: Cicero's word is consectetur, "pursues".
A short, plain version of the lorem ipsum opening, read back into Cicero's words, is "pain itself, because it is pain, he loves, pursues, wants to obtain". The scrambled text itself does not say this. It only borrows the words.
Is lorem ipsum real Latin?
Partly. Most single words in the passage are real Latin words, such as ipsum, dolor, labore and voluptate. Others are broken pieces of real words, such as lorem, elit and tempor. A few were changed or invented, such as adipiscing, incididunt and nostrud.
The sentences are not grammatical Latin. Wikipedia sums this up by saying the text "has no significant meaning in Latin". A Latin reader sees familiar words in an order that makes no sense, which is the point of dummy text. It looks like writing but does not pull the reader's eye to the content.
How it became the standard dummy text
Many websites still say lorem ipsum has been used since the 1500s. The evidence does not support that date. Here is what the sources show, in order:
- 1914: the Loeb edition with the "do- / lorem ipsum" page break is published. Cibois argues the dummy text cannot be older than this edition.
- 1960s: Letraset, a maker of dry transfer lettering sheets, puts the text on its "Body Type" sheets. Wikipedia cites a January 1966 trade journal for the first sheets. Cibois says the oldest dated trace he found himself is an undated Letraset brochure from the 1970s, dated by its typefaces.
- 1985: the first version of Aldus PageMaker, an early desktop publishing program, includes lorem ipsum. The text then spreads through layout software and, later, word processors and web tools.
- 1994: McClintock's letter to Before & After traces the text to Cicero.
The 1500s story comes from McClintock himself. He suggested a printer in the 1500s had scrambled the text for a type specimen book. In a 2001 column, The Straight Dope reported that McClintock could not find that type sample again, and that the earliest use he could confirm was on Letraset sheets. Wikipedia reports that McClintock said in a 2026 video interview that the date was a guess.
Who wrote the Letraset version is not settled. A 2026 YouTube video reports that Letraset designer Dave Farey named James Mosley, the librarian of the St Bride Printing Library in London. lipsum.com now repeats this account. Cibois calls it a new lead, and the claim rests on that one video.
Using lorem ipsum today
Designers still use the text to fill a layout before the real copy is ready. You can make paragraphs, sentences or words of it with the free lorem ipsum generator. For a mockup with a sense of humour, the themed lorem ipsum generator writes filler around any topic. Filling a design with stand-in text is also called greeking, which is explained in what greeking is.
Frequently asked questions
What does lorem ipsum dolor sit amet mean?
It comes from Cicero's phrase "dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit, amet", which means roughly "he loves pain itself, because it is pain". The placeholder version is cut and scrambled, so on its own it has no real meaning.
What is lorem ipsum dolor sit amet in English?
H. Rackham's 1914 translation of the source sentence reads: "Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain." The lorem ipsum text only borrows words from this sentence and does not translate as a whole.
What does consectetur adipiscing elit mean?
In Cicero's original, "consectetur, adipisci velit" means "pursues, wants to obtain". In the lorem ipsum version, "adipiscing" has a changed ending and "elit" is a fragment of "velit", so the phrase is not correct Latin.
Does lorem mean anything in Latin?
No. "Lorem" is the end of the word "dolorem", meaning "pain", with the first two letters cut off. In the 1914 Loeb edition, "do-" ends one page and "lorem ipsum" starts the next Latin page.
Has lorem ipsum been used since the 1500s?
There is no evidence for that. The text matches the page layout of a 1914 edition of Cicero, and the earliest known uses are Letraset sheets from the 1960s and 1970s. The 1500s date came from Richard McClintock's guess.
Sources
- Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum, translated by H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library, 1914. Scan on archive.org, pages 34 to 37, checked on 2026-11-03.
- Wikipedia, Lorem ipsum, checked on 2026-11-03.
- Philippe Cibois, Lorem ipsum: nouvel état de la question (in French), checked on 2026-11-03.
- Cecil Adams, The Straight Dope, What does the filler text "lorem ipsum" mean?, February 2001, checked on 2026-11-03.
- lipsum.com, Lorem Ipsum: all the facts, checked on 2026-11-03.