Meaning & use
celebrations
Last updated
“celebrations” is a form of “celebration”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
nouncountable
Events or parties held to mark a happy occasion, or the acts of enjoying such an occasion.
Grammar: Countable: one celebration, two celebrations; often used in the plural for a series of events.
Patterns
- celebrations for something
- hold celebrations
- birthday celebrations
The town held celebrations for its two-hundredth birthday.
Wedding celebrations lasted all weekend.
There were celebrations in the streets after the team won.
noununcountable
The act of marking an important event or achievement with enjoyment and special attention.
Grammar: Uncountable when it means the general activity: 'a time for celebration', not 'a celebration of time'.
Patterns
- a time for celebration
- in celebration of something
The whole school was closed in celebration of the holiday.
There was little time for celebration before the next match.
Word forms
| singular | celebration |
|---|
Common combinations
- birthday celebrations
- Her birthday celebrations went on until midnight.
- public celebrations
- Public celebrations were canceled because of the storm.
- join the celebrations
- Hundreds of people joined the celebrations in the square.
- mark something with celebrations
- They marked the anniversary with celebrations across the country.
- a round of celebrations
- After the exam results came a round of celebrations.
Synonyms and how they differ
- festivities
- More formal and usually refers to a whole program of planned enjoyable events, while 'celebrations' stresses the reason for marking something.
- party
- A single social event with food and music; 'celebrations' can cover many such events or the general marking of an occasion.
- ceremony
- A formal, often serious event; celebrations are more about enjoyment than ritual.
Opposites
Word family
- celebrate verb
- to do something enjoyable to mark a special occasion
- celebratory adjective
- describing something done to mark a happy occasion
- celebrated adjective
- famous and admired, especially for achievements
- celebrant noun
- a person who performs a religious ceremony, or someone taking part in a celebration
Commonly confused: celebrations or celibacy?
celebrations vs celibacy
A different word meaning the state of not marrying or having sexual relationships; the spelling is similar but the meaning is unrelated.
Practice
Which sentence uses the plural form correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Celebrations' is a countable plural, so it fits 'were' and follows 'the'. Option 2 uses a plural noun with a singular verb, option 3 puts the plural after 'a', and option 4 needs the plural 'celebrations' after 'many'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “celebrations”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.