Acclaim

//əˈkleɪm// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An acclamation; a shout of applause. countable, poetic, uncountable
  2. 2
    enthusiastic approval wordnet
  3. 3
    A claim. countable, obsolete, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To shout; to call out. archaic, transitive
  2. 2
    praise vociferously wordnet
  3. 3
    To express great approval (for). transitive

    "a highly-acclaimed novel"

  4. 4
    clap one's hands or shout after performances to indicate approval wordnet
  5. 5
    To salute or praise with great approval; to compliment; to applaud; to welcome enthusiastically. rare, transitive
Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    To claim. obsolete, transitive
  2. 7
    To declare by acclamations. transitive

    "Thou ſhalt be crown'd— / An Iron Crown, intenſely hot, ſhall gird / Thy hoary Temples; while the ſhouting Crowd / Acclaims thee King of Traitors."

  3. 8
    To elect (a politician, etc.) to an office automatically because no other candidates run; elect by acclamation. Canada

Synonyms

All synonyms
applaudapplaudclaphailabide byaccede

Antonyms

All antonyms
boo

Example

More examples

"The mayor's speech was received with much acclaim."

Etymology

Etymology 1

* First attested in the early 14th century. * (to applaud): First attested in the 1630s. * Borrowed from Latin acclāmō (“raise a cry at; applaud”), formed from ad- + clāmō (“cry out, shout”).

Etymology 2

* First attested in 1667.

Related phrases

call out

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.