Party

How to spell party

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce party

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does party mean?

1. nounA social event at which people gather to enjoy themselves, often with food, drink, and music.
2. nounAn organised political group that shares a set of aims and contests elections.
3. nounA group of people travelling or acting together for a shared purpose.
4. nounA person or organisation taking part in a contract, agreement, or legal dispute.
5. verbTo celebrate or enjoy oneself, typically with drinking, dancing, and lively company.

Party in a sentence

• noun

  They hired a hall for the retirement party.

• noun

  He joined the opposition party after the election.

• noun

  A search party set out at dawn to find the missing hiker.

• noun

  Each party to the contract must sign the final page.

• verb

  The students like to party every weekend after exams.

• noun

  The children's birthday party ran late into the afternoon.

Where does party come from?

Language of origin: French

Party traces back to the Latin noun pars, partis, meaning 'a part, portion, or side', and to the related verb partire, 'to divide'. From these came the Old French partie, the feminine past participle of partir 'to divide', which carried senses such as 'a part', 'a share', and 'a side in a dispute'. English took the word in during the 1200s and 1300s, at first with the legal and factional meanings: a party was a side in a lawsuit or one of two divided groups of people. The familiar sense of a social gathering, a group brought together for pleasure, only blossomed later, around the 1700s, while the casual verb 'to party', meaning to celebrate noisily, is a much more modern, twentieth-century development. The shared root explains why party sits so close to 'part', 'partition', and 'partner', and why a single small word can mean a celebration, a political faction, and a person named in a contract all at once.

How the word is built

• part- (from Latin pars, partis: a part, share, side)
• -y (noun suffix, via Old French partie)