Celebration

How to spell celebration

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce celebration

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does celebration mean?

1. nounA joyful event or activity held to mark a special occasion or achievement.

Celebration in a sentence

• The team booked a restaurant for a celebration after winning the contract.

• Their wedding celebration lasted late into the evening.

Where does celebration come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin verb celebrare, which meant to throng to a place, to frequent, and then to honour or solemnise with a crowd. That verb came from celeber, an adjective meaning frequented, populous, or famous, so the root idea was a gathering of many people. The Latin noun celebratio described the act of attending or honouring in numbers, and this passed into English through Old French celebracion in the late 1300s. Early English use kept a religious flavour, referring to the solemn performance of a rite such as Mass, before the modern sense of a joyful festive occasion took hold. The same celeber root still echoes in celebrity, a person frequented by public attention, which helps explain why both words share that tricky middle 'cele' spelling rather than 'cele' versus 'sele'.

How the word is built

• celebr- (from celebrare: to honour, frequent)
• -ation (noun of action)