Ovation

How to spell ovation

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce ovation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ovation mean?

1. nounA sustained burst of enthusiastic applause or cheering in appreciation of a performance or person.

Ovation in a sentence

• The soprano received a standing ovation at the end of the concert.

• The retiring chairman walked off stage to a warm ovation from the staff.

Where does ovation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin ovatio, a noun built on the verb ovare, which meant 'to rejoice' or 'to exult'. In ancient Rome an ovatio was a lesser form of the triumph: a celebratory procession granted to a victorious general whose achievement did not quite merit the grand parade, during which crowds cheered him through the streets. The Latin verb itself may echo a cry of joy, something like a shouted 'evoe', which connects it to the idea of jubilant noise. English adopted the word in the late 1500s, at first for the Roman ceremony, and by the 1800s it had broadened to mean the loud, prolonged applause an audience gives a performer. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle vowel: the ending is -ation, not -asion, even though it sounds soft.

How the word is built

• ov- (from Latin ovare: to rejoice, exult)
• -ation (noun-forming suffix)