christen
verb
Simple meaning
To use for the first time.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
krisuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɹɪsən
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
colloquial
To use for the first time.
transitiveby extension
To name.
transitive
To perform the religious rite of baptism upon; to baptize.
Administer baptism to
informal
To douse or wet with blood, urine, tears, or other liquid.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To use for the first time.
Used this way, christen is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Casual
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Casual and conversational
Where it naturally appears
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Nearby words
- baptise , much rarer in everyday speech
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.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Giving a Christian name at baptism.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The collective body of Christians throughout the world and history (found predominantly in Europe and the Americas and Australia).
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.