Celebrate Meaning
/ˈsɛl.ɪ.bɹeɪt/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
verbTo extol or honour in a solemn manner.
verbTo honour by rites, by ceremonies of joy and respect, or by refraining from ordinary business; to observe duly.
Sentence Examples
It was a party to celebrate her birthday.
Yes, you can celebrate anything you want.
Jake's passed his exams. We're going out to celebrate.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Our family will ____ Grandma's 80th birthday with a big party next Saturday.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We gathered together to ____ my brother's graduation from college.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English celebraten, from celebrat(e) (“celebrated”, also used as the past participle of celebraten) + -en, borrowed from Latin celebrātus, perfect passive participle of celebrō (“frequent, go to in great numbers, celebrate, honor, praise”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from celeber (“frequented, populous”). Displaced native Old English fæġnian.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"To celebrate the centenary next month of the opening of the first section (Forest Gate to Tilbury) of the former London, Tilbury & Southend Railway, the Stephenson Locomotive Society is organising a special rail tour over that route and other lesser-known L.T.S.R. lines."
— 1954 March, “Notes and News: S.L.S. Tour of Tilbury Lines”, in Railway Magazine, page 215:
"Okay, that is simply not true. If that were the case, you wouldn’t need to have an Olympics. The whole reason we do this is to find out who is better than everyone else, so that we can make them stand higher than the other people who are not as good as them, because the point of the games is not to celebrate equality. It is to celebrate individuals’ excellence. So let us all settle in for two incredible weeks of celebrating the fittest, the bravest, the most beautiful and of course, the drunkest of us all. “Did somebody say ‘party’?”"
— 2016 August 7, “Journalism”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 20, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:
"Instead, we retreat into our gender-segregated media spaces where the manosphere extols stoicism and the womanosphere celebrates emotional vulnerability."
— 2024 April 17, David Sasaki, “The emotionally immature lives of men and women”, in The Time Capsule, archived from the original on 12 Nov 2024:
"Hester Earle and Violet Wayne were moving about the aisle with bundles of wheat-ears and streamers of ivy, for the harvest thanksgiving was shortly to be celebrated, while the vicar stood waiting for their directions on the chancel steps with a great handful of crimson gladioli."
— 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 20, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:
"As Di Matteo celebrated and captain John Terry raised the trophy for the fourth time, the Italian increased his claims to become the permanent successor to Andre Villas-Boas by landing a trophy."
— 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2022:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Our family will ____ Grandma's 80th birthday with a big party next Saturday.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We gathered together to ____ my brother's graduation from college.