celebrate

Etymology

From Middle English celebraten, from Latin celebratus, past participle of celebrō (“frequent, go to in great numbers, celebrate, honor, praise”), from celeber (“frequented, populous”). Displaced native Old English fæġnian.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛl.ɪ.bɹeɪt/, /ˈsɛl.ə.bɹeɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛl.ə.bɹeɪt/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈsel.ə.bɹæɪt/

Verb

celebrate (third-person singular simple present celebrates, present participle celebrating, simple past and past participle celebrated)

1. (transitive) To extol or honour in a solemn manner.

   Synonym: fete

   to celebrate the name of the Most High

   • 1954 March, “Notes and News: S.L.S. Tour of Tilbury Lines”, in Railway Magazine, page 215:

     To celebrate the centenary next month of the opening of the first section (Forest Gate to Tilbury) of the former London, Tilbury & Southend Railway, the Stephenson Locomotive Society is organising a special rail tour over that route and other lesser-known L.T.S.R. lines.

   • 2016 August 7, “Journalism”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 20, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:

     Okay, that is simply not true. If that were the case, you wouldn’t need to have an Olympics. The whole reason we do this is to find out who is better than everyone else, so that we can make them stand higher than the other people who are not as good as them, because the point of the games is not to celebrate equality. It is to celebrate individuals’ excellence. So let us all settle in for two incredible weeks of celebrating the fittest, the bravest, the most beautiful and of course, the drunkest of us all. “Did somebody say ‘party’?”

2. (transitive) To honour by rites, by ceremonies of joy and respect, or by refraining from ordinary business; to observe duly.

   Synonyms: observe, keep

   to celebrate a birthday

   • 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 20, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:

     Hester Earle and Violet Wayne were moving about the aisle with bundles of wheat-ears and streamers of ivy, for the harvest thanksgiving was shortly to be celebrated, while the vicar stood waiting for their directions on the chancel steps with a great handful of crimson gladioli.

3. (transitive or intransitive) To engage in joyful activity in appreciation of an event.

   I was promoted today at work—let’s celebrate!

   • 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport‎:

     As Di Matteo celebrated and captain John Terry raised the trophy for the fourth time, the Italian increased his claims to become the permanent successor to Andre Villas-Boas by landing a trophy.

4. (transitive) To perform or participate in, as a sacrament or solemn rite; to perform with appropriate rites.

   Synonym: solemnize

   to celebrate a marriage

Further reading

• “celebrate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “celebrate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “celebrate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• erectable

Adverb

celebrate

1. present adverbial passive participle of celebri

Verb

celebrate

1. inflection of celebrare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Anagrams

• cablerete

Verb

celebrāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of celebrō

Verb

celebrate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of celebrar combined with te