Celebrate

How to spell celebrate

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce celebrate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does celebrate mean?

1. verbTo mark a happy or important occasion with enjoyable activities or festivity.
2. verbTo publicly honour, praise, or formally observe something or someone.

Celebrate in a sentence

• The whole family gathered to celebrate her ninetieth birthday.

• The documentary sets out to celebrate the achievements of pioneering nurses.

• The team booked a restaurant to celebrate winning the contract.

• The priest will celebrate Mass at the cathedral on Sunday.

Where does celebrate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin verb celebrare, meaning 'to frequent, to honour with a crowd, or to perform in great numbers'. That verb was built on the adjective celeber, which described a place that was busy or crowded and, by extension, something widely talked about and famous. So at its root, to celebrate originally carried the idea of gathering many people together to mark an occasion publicly. English took the word in the early 1500s, partly through the influence of Latin church usage, where it described the solemn performance of religious rites such as Mass. From those formal beginnings the meaning broadened into the everyday modern sense of marking a happy event with festivity. The same celeber root also gives us 'celebrity', a person who is much talked about, which is a handy reminder that the word is spelled with a single l and an e in the middle, not a double letter.

How the word is built

• celebr- (from Latin celeber: frequented, renowned)
• -ate (verb suffix)