Praise

//pɹeɪz// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Commendation; favourable representation in words. countable, uncountable

    "The writer's latest novel received great praise in the media."

  2. 2
    an expression of approval and commendation wordnet
  3. 3
    worship, glorification, adoration. countable, uncountable

    "praise of God"

  4. 4
    offering words of homage as an act of worship wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To give praise to; to commend, glorify, or worship.

    "Be sure to praise Bobby for his excellent work at school this week."

  2. 2
    express approval of wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
exaltacclaimacclamationaccoladeaccoladeacknowledgment

Example

More examples

"Praise stimulates students to work hard."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English praise, preyse, from the verb (see below). Doublet of prize. Displaced native Middle English lof from Old English lof (“praise”) and Middle English loenge, loange from Old French löenge, löange (“praise”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English praisen, preisen, from Old French proisier, preisier (“to value, prize”), from Late Latin pretiō (“to value, prize”) from pretium (“price, worth, reward”). Displaced native Middle English herien from Old English herian (“to praise”).

Related phrases

damn with faint praisepraise bepraise be to Godpraise namepraise the Lordpraise to the skiespraise with faint damnsself-praisesing the praiseschurch activitygood job

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