adj, name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
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"We spent each of the past five Easters together as a family."
"A northeaster in one place may be an easter, a norther, or a souther in some other locality."
"Meronyms: Easter Day, Easter Sunday"
"After two dayes folowed eſter⸝ and the dayes of ſwete breed. And the hye preſtꝭ [prestis] and ſcrybꝭ [scrybis] ſought meanes⸝ howe they myght take hym [Jesus] by crafte and putt hym to deeth."
"Off Tilbury the Alcyone's topsail-yard was carried away just forward of the slings; she set a jib-headed one; at Thames Haven the wind eastered ..."
"In the mean while, as our apartment was a corner one, and looked both east and north, I ran to the easter casement to look after Drummond."
"Let's go and watch the Easter parade."
A Christian feast commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated on the first Sunday (and Monday) following the full moon that occurs on or next after the vernal equinox, ranging in most of Western Christianity (such as Protestantism and Roman Catholicism) from March 22 to April 25, and in Eastern Christianity (such as the Coptic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church) from April 4 to May 8.
Common synonyms include: advent, allhallowmas, allhallows, allhallowtide, annunciation, annunciation day.
Let's go and watch the Easter parade.
Pronounced /ˈiːstə/.
The noun is derived from Middle English Ester, from Old English ēastre, seemingly from Ēastre, a proposed Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn whose festival is thought to have been celebrated around the vernal equinox. Further from Proto-West Germanic *Austrā, from Proto-Germanic *Austrǭ, derived from either Proto-Indo-European *h₂ews- (“dawn; east”) or, more semantically plausible, from *austrą, *auzrą, a metathesized form of *wazrą (“spring (season)”), *-ǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *wósr̥ (“spring”). The English word is cognate with German Low German Oostern (“Easter”), Old High German ōstarūn (modern German Ostern) and is possibly a doublet of east. Despite a modern folk etymology, not related to Ishtar. The verb is derived from the noun.
From Old English eastera, eastra. Compare norther, souther, wester.