acclaim
Americanverb (used with object)
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acclaims,
present (3rd person singular)
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acclaimed,
past participle, past
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acclaiming
present participle
-
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)
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acclaims,
present (3rd person singular)
-
acclaimed,
past participle, past
-
acclaiming
present participle
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
-
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:
“I’ve always moved on,” Curry told me last year, sitting in the Roxy Theatre on the Sunset Strip, where he’d played Frank to great acclaim in 1974, after originating the role in London.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Over the course of his career, Ogogo won numerous awards and earned critical acclaim for his role in the movie Anikulapo, where he played the Alaafin of Oyo - the most revered king in Yorubaland.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
Panettiere, who earned acclaim for her roles as a cheerleader with supernatural powers on the TV show “Heroes” and as a troubled country music diva on the show “Nashville,” was 36.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
The play, first produced to acclaim in London, takes place primarily in New York.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
They stepped forward to save lives and relieve suffering, and did so without thought of receiving individual acclaim.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
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
A clash of all the instruments acclaims the climax before the unison stroke of fullest chorus on the solemn note of the beginning.
From Symphonies and Their Meaning; Third Series, Modern Symphonies by Philip H. Goepp
Along for the romp, making a Broadway debut: Mason Alexander Park, acclaimed in the title role in the West End production of the megahit comedy “Oh, Mary!”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
Many recent stand-up acts might be critically acclaimed, but too few of them seem to garner the level of public praise as others do ire from fans.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
Thankfully, Curry did not allow any eerie rumors to deter him from securing the home, which was originally built in 1922, having been designed by acclaimed architect Stiles O. Clements.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
As a member of NASA’s class of “flagship” astrophysics missions, its acclaimed colleagues include the Hubble and the James Webb space telescopes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
Nearly a decade later, in December 1939, the acclaimed newspaper reporter Ernie Pyle stopped at La Tuna prison, near El Paso, Texas.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
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
In Providence last night the unusual had occurred and the reviewers had found themselves acclaiming a new luminary in the firmament of present-day playwrights.
From The Tyranny of Weakness by Paul Stahr
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.
