Congratulate
//kənˈɡɹæt͡ʃ.ʊˌleɪt// verb
verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Verb
- 1 To express one’s sympathetic pleasure or joy to the person(s) it is felt for
"Remind me to congratulate Dave and Lisa on their wedding."
- 2 say something to someone that expresses praise wordnet
- 3 To consider oneself fortunate in some matter. reflexive
"I congratulated myself on the success of my plan."
- 4 express congratulations wordnet
- 5 pride or congratulate (oneself) for an achievement wordnet
Show 1 more definition
- 6 be proud of wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Let me congratulate you on your victory in the tournament."
Etymology
First attested in 1548; borrowed from Latin congrātulātus, the perfect active participle of Latin grātulor (“to wish joice, rejoice (with); to congratulate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from con- + grātulor, from grātus (“grateful, pleasing, agreeable, beloved”) + -or. By surface analysis, con- + gratulate.
Related phrases
More for "congratulate"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.