Cheers

How to spell cheers

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce cheers

What does cheers mean?

1. interjectionAn expression of good wishes said while raising glasses to drink together.
2. interjectionA casual British way of saying thank you.
3. interjectionA casual British way of saying goodbye, often at the end of a message or call.

Cheers in a sentence

• The guests raised their glasses and said cheers before the meal began.

• She handed him the receipt and he gave a quick cheers as he left the shop.

• He finished the phone call with a friendly cheers and hung up.

• He lifted his pint, looked round the table, and offered a hearty cheers.

• Cheers for sorting out the booking at such short notice.

• She signed off her email with cheers and her first name.

Where does cheers come from?

Language of origin: French

The word traces back to the Old French 'chiere', meaning 'face' or 'expression', which itself came from the Late Latin 'cara', also meaning 'face'. When it entered English in the 1200s it likewise meant the face or countenance, and so a person was said to be of 'good cheer' when their expression showed contentment. From describing the look on a face, the sense slid toward the mood behind it, then toward gladness, encouragement, and the shouts of approval a happy crowd makes. The plural 'cheers' grew out of those approving shouts, and in twentieth-century British usage it broadened into a friendly toast raised over drinks and, more casually still, into a word for 'thanks' or 'goodbye'. The link to 'face' is long forgotten, but it explains why a word about the heart's mood began as a word about how that mood shows in the features.

How the word is built

• cheer (face, mood, then glad shout)
• -s (plural/interjectional ending)