acclaim
Americanverb (used with object)
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to welcome or salute with shouts or sounds of joy and approval; applaud.
to acclaim the conquering heroes.
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to announce or proclaim with enthusiastic approval.
to acclaim the new king.
verb (used without object)
noun
verb
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(tr) to acknowledge publicly the excellence of (a person, act, etc)
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to salute with cheering, clapping, etc; applaud
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(tr) to acknowledge publicly that (a person) has (some position, quality, etc)
they acclaimed him king
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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acclaimsimple
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acclaimssimple
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have acclaimedperfect
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has acclaimedperfect
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am acclaimingprogressive
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are acclaimingprogressive
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is acclaimingprogressive
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have been acclaimingperfect progressive
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has been acclaimingperfect progressive
Past
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acclaimedsimple
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had acclaimedperfect
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was acclaimingprogressive
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were acclaimingprogressive
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had been acclaimingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of acclaim
From the Latin word acclāmāre, dating back to 1630–40. See ac-, claim
Explanation
You know you've hit it big when you earn acclaim, or enthusiastic approval. And when you have achieved "critical acclaim," even the grouchy critics approve of you. The word acclaim comes from the Latin word acclamare, which means to cry out. So it only makes sense that the verb acclaim means to offer enthusiastic praise or applause. "The book was critically acclaimed, but most of the students found it to be stupefyingly boring."
Vocabulary lists containing acclaim
Essential English Vocabulary, List 1
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The Unteachables
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The Crossover
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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:
The idea is to help showcase films that received critical acclaim, but did not secure distribution or acquisition deals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
Meanwhile, for all of the paper’s popular acclaim, many fellow scientists say “Wedges” missed its target.
From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2026
She felt even better as Freud’s portraits of her gained increasing acclaim.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026
He immediately achieved commercial success by signing Barry Manilow; and critical acclaim for releasing Patti Smith's influential debut album, Horses.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
In the late 1990s, however, Cook County Hospital started a project that may one day earn the hospital as much acclaim as any of those earlier accomplishments.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
When Mr. Marx acclaims “Old Town Road” as an “incredible homegrown feat,” he praises what he damns elsewhere as the second sickness of our age.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
In a review headlined “Flaunting It,” New York Times book critic Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote, “George Lois may be nearly as great a genius of mass communication as he acclaims himself to be.”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 21, 2022
There are countless ways to get B’s and C’s without building the “creativity, leadership and teamwork skills” that Mr. Grant rightly acclaims.
From New York Times ● Dec. 22, 2018
Each midwinter Science acclaims outstanding workers in schools, factories and offices by means of medals, prizes, publicity.
From Time Magazine Archive
Still, it may console these gentlemen to know that the nation which wages war on women and children acclaims them to-day "all honourable men," and doubtless without the Shakespearian intonation.
From What Germany Thinks The War as Germans see it by Smith, Thomas F. A.
Designed by acclaimed architecture firm Olson Kundig, the 2,900-square-foot residence features two bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, floor-to-ceiling glass walls, and a spacious terrace overlooking the Hollywood Hills.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
It’s a dizzyingly brilliant measure of the versatility and depth of the acclaimed author’s literary talent.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
Throughout all three hours of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” — the acclaimed writer-director’s take on the ancient Greek epic attributed to Homer — I repeatedly returned to one question.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026
Mr. Moore, who has created acclaimed comic books and fiction, draws on all his talents in crafting this lurid collage of English culture past, present and future.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Aguirre-Sacasa had been a writer for HBO’s acclaimed Big Love, a drama about a polygamist Mormon family.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
Pundits worldwide were united in acclaiming it as one of the best England performances of all time, if not the very best.
From Reuters ● Nov. 2, 2019
But that had not prevented others from acclaiming him as a hero.
From New York Times ● Oct. 14, 2018
He confessed as much to the left-wing American writer Anna Louise Strong in 1958, when she was about to write a book acclaiming Mao's Great Leap Forward.
From BBC ● Dec. 25, 2013
Even more enthusiastic was the Literary Review's Malcolm Forbes, acclaiming "a superb new novel" by "a writer of huge talent" who is "starting to resemble her literary idol, Chinua Achebe".
From The Guardian ● Apr. 13, 2013
Fraulein Unger, the soprano, gently takes his arm and turns him round to front the acclaiming multitude.
From Great Men and Famous Women, Vol. 8 A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History by Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis)
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.
