christmas
noun · verb · adjective
Simple meaning
A quarter day in England, Wales.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
krismuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɹɪsməs
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.
noun
originally Christianity
A Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Christ; a quarter day in England, Wales, and Ireland
originally christianity
A festival or holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ and incorporating various Christian, pre-Christian, pagan, and secular customs, which in Western Christianity is celebrated on December 25 (Christmas Day) in most places.
A number of places in the United States
Period extending from Dec. 24 to Jan. 6
often marketing
Advent, the period from Advent Sunday (inclusive) through the start of Epiphany.
verb
transitiveinformal
To decorate (a place) with Christmas ("sprigs of holly and other evergreen plants used as Christmas decorations, or any Christmas decorations").
intransitive
To celebrate Christmas.
intransitive
To spend Christmas or the Christmas season in some place.
colloquial
To subject to Christmas celebrations.
adjective
Red and green in color.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Christ; a quarter day in England, Wales, and Ireland
Used this way, christmas is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- xmas , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use christmas
- “My family always celebrates Christmas together with a big meal.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Spiny evergreen shrub of southeastern United States having spreading branches usually blue or mauve flowers and red berries.
A present given at Christmas for services during the year.
Australian tree or shrub with red flowers.
Epiphytic cactus of Brazilian ancestry widely cultivated as a houseplant having jointed flat segments and usually rose-purple flowers that bloom in winter.
A rich fruitcake (usually covered with icing and marzipan) and eaten at Christmas.
A card expressing a Christmas greeting.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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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.