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congratulations

n · noun

Form of congratulation , plural of congratulation.

Simple meaning

"Congratulations", sometimes known by its Icelandic title of "Til hamingju Ísland", was the entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kuhngrachuhlayshuhnz

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

kənɡɹætʃəˈleɪʃənz

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

n

  1. "Congratulations", sometimes known by its Icelandic title of "Til hamingju Ísland", was the entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, performed in English by Silvía Night.

  2. "Congratulations" is a song recorded by British singer Cliff Richard written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter.

  3. "Congratulations" is a song by American singer Post Malone, featuring guest appearances from American rapper Quavo.

  4. "Congratulations" is a song co-written and performed by American contemporary R&B singer Vesta Williams (then known mononymously as Vesta), issued as the third and final official single from her second studio album Vesta 4

  5. The second studio album by American rock band MGMT.

  6. A 2023 Indian Gujarati-language drama film directed by Rehan Chaudhary.

noun

  1. An expression of approval and commendation

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: "Congratulations", sometimes known by its Icelandic title of "Til hamingju Ísland", was the entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, performed in English by Silvía Night.

Used this way, congratulations is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Technical/specialist writing

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

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.

sincere congratulationswarm congratulationsoffer congratulationsmutual congratulationsreceived congratulations

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • congratulationnounBase word

    The act of acknowledging that someone has an occasion for celebration.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: expression of approval and commendation

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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.