celebrate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
celebrates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
celebrated,
past participle, past
-
celebrating
present participle
-
to observe (a day) or commemorate (an event) with ceremonies or festivities.
to celebrate Christmas; to celebrate the success of a new play.
- Synonyms:
- solemnize, commemorate
-
to make known publicly; proclaim.
The newspaper celebrated the end of the war in red headlines.
-
to praise widely or to present to widespread and favorable public notice, as through newspapers or novels.
a novel celebrating the joys of marriage; the countryside celebrated in the novels of Hardy.
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to perform with appropriate rites and ceremonies; solemnize.
to celebrate a marriage.
verb (used without object)
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celebrates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
celebrated,
past participle, past
-
celebrating
present participle
-
to observe a day or commemorate an event with ceremonies or festivities.
-
to perform a religious ceremony, especially Mass or the Lord's Supper.
-
to have or participate in a party, drinking spree, or uninhibited good time.
You look like you were up celebrating all night.
verb
-
to rejoice in or have special festivities to mark (a happy day, event, etc)
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(tr) to observe (a birthday, anniversary, etc)
she celebrates her ninetieth birthday next month
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(tr) to perform (a solemn or religious ceremony), esp to officiate at (Mass)
-
(tr) to praise publicly; proclaim
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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celebraternoun
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celebrationnoun
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celebratornoun
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precelebrateverb
-
recelebrateverb
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celebrativeadjective
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celebratoryadjective
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uncelebratingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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celebratesimple
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celebratessimple
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have celebratedperfect
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has celebratedperfect
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am celebratingprogressive
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are celebratingprogressive
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is celebratingprogressive
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have been celebratingperfect progressive
-
has been celebratingperfect progressive
Past
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celebratedsimple
-
had celebratedperfect
-
was celebratingprogressive
-
were celebratingprogressive
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had been celebratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of celebrate
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English, from Latin celebrātus, past participle of celebrāre “to solemnize, celebrate, honor,” equivalent to celebr- (stem of celeber ) “often repeated, famous” + -ātus past participle suffix; see -ate 1
Explanation
To celebrate means to mark a special day, event, or holiday. You might celebrate a birthday, a religious holiday, or even the anniversary of a famous battle. Use celebrate for festive, happy occasions. If the special day, event, or holiday is more solemn or introspective, a verb like observe is often used. After we observe Memorial Day, we look forward to celebrating the Fourth of July. The verb can also mean to honor or praise — "The book celebrated the life of the actress who had given so much to worthy causes."
Vocabulary lists containing celebrate
Academy Awards, List 2
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myPerspectives 7.5
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"Familiar Places"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Let’s celebrate that, even as we gird for more battles to come.
From Slate ● Sep. 15, 2026
Shalini Thakur was supposed to celebrate her 39th birthday this week.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
Paris City Hall organised a massive karaoke event on Friday night, attended by thousands, to celebrate Dion's return to the stage.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
Laurel and Dustin McQuate, from Breckenridge, Colo., visited Mallorca for the first time this month to celebrate a friend’s 50th birthday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
Lily turns in her Yale application, and Mom decides we have to go out for a special dinner to celebrate.
From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish
As it celebrates its 60th year in business, together with its parent company Terex, they are looking at how their workforce has changed and diversified.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
A website mocked up by commercial real estate brokerage RDE Advisors celebrates its many advantages.
From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2026
"To me, the best thing to do is to tell an original story that celebrates everything that I love about the games."
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
But having an awards show that celebrates television presented on a streaming platform behind a pay wall would be a major symbolic statement that traditional viewing on the networks has lost its cultural relevance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
The team celebrates by eating a dozen or so pizzas.
From "Boy21" by Matthew Quick
There are of course unavoidable parallels between the stories of Kiritsis and Mangione, including the fact that both men were celebrated as folk heroes by some people who identified with their broader resentments.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
Opened in 1992, the museum is dedicated to the late Kim Whanki, a celebrated painter and abstract artist, known by many as the "Picasso of Korea".
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Alas, even the raised stakes cannot shake them from the emotional and intellectual torpor that bedevils Chekhov’s celebrated characters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
Her sobriquet is a journalistic creation thought to have been inspired by a celebrated 1946 movie, “The Blue Dahlia,” written by crime novelist Raymond Chandler.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026
The still-very-much-alive writer, James Fenimore Cooper, was the most celebrated man at Griswold’s that evening.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
Brighton, who was from the city, had been out with her friends celebrating her 60th birthday.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
There was a stylized poster of Che Guevara celebrating a little-known holiday on Oct.
From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2026
He posted a picture of screaming, joyous, celebrating burnt-orange-clad students.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
The longstanding joke about Emmy Awards broadcasts, among jaded TV critics anyway, is that an evening dedicated to celebrating the best TV often turns out to be one of the worst shows of the year.
From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2026
We didn’t have a tree, and if it hadn’t been for the ham that Mr. Ballard sent home to all his employees, I think we would have been celebrating with thawed hamburgers.
From "Okay for Now" by Gary D. Schmidt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
