bless
verb
Simple meaning
Render holy using religious rites.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
blehsIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈblɛs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Render holy by means of religious rites
To make something holy by religious rite, sanctify.
To invoke divine favor upon.
To honor as holy, glorify; to extol for excellence.
To esteem or account happy; to felicitate.
philippines
To perform the mano gesture; taking of an elder's hand to press it to one's forehead or kiss it (as a sign of respect)
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Render holy by means of religious rites
Used this way, bless is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use bless
- “The dying man blessed his son.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Highly favored or fortunate (as e.g. by divine grace).
The formal act of approving.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Tall Old World biennial thistle with large clasping white-blotched leaves and purple flower heads.
The union of the Father and Son and Holy Ghost in one Godhead.
The mother of Jesus.
The live birth of a child.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.