celebrate
verb
Simple meaning
To engage in joyful activity in appreciation of an event.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sehluhbraytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɛləbɹeɪt
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
transitive or intransitive
To engage in joyful activity in appreciation of an event.
transitive
To honour by rites, by ceremonies of joy and respect, or by refraining from ordinary business; to observe duly.
transitive
To extol or honour in a solemn manner.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (transitive or intransitive) To engage in joyful activity in appreciation of an event.
Used this way, celebrate is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It carries warmth, so it reads as personal rather than detached.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Grateful and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Warm and expressive
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- celebrationnoun
- occasionnoun
- anniversarynoun
- weddingnoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to engage in joyful activity in appreciation of an event
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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.