congratulate

English

Alternative forms

• gratulate (archaic)

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈɡɹæt͡ʃ.ʊˌleɪt/, /-t͡ʃ.ə-/

  • Audio (UK):

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  • Audio (US):

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• (US, sometimes) IPA^(key): /kənˈɡɹæd͡ʒ.ʊˌleɪt/, /-d͡ʒ.ə-/

Verb

congratulate (third-person singular simple present congratulates, present participle congratulating, simple past and past participle congratulated)

1. To express one’s sympathetic pleasure or joy to the person(s) it is felt for

   Synonyms: felicitate, compliment

   Remind me to congratulate Dave and Lisa on their wedding.

   We must congratulate Dave and Lisa on getting married.

   • 2025 May 7, Ben Morse, “‘Proud of you’: Cristiano Ronaldo’s eldest son earns first call-up for Portugal Under-15 national team”, in CNN‎:

     Ronaldo Sr., who is the record goalscorer in men’s international soccer with 136 goals for Portugal, congratulated his son on his Instagram Stories by posting a picture of his name on the squad list, saying: “Proud of you, son!”

2. (reflexive) To consider oneself fortunate in some matter.

   I congratulated myself on the success of my plan.

Derived terms

• congratulable
• congratulant
• congratulating
• congratulative
• congratulator
• congratulatory
• recongratulate
• self-congratulate
• uncongratulated
• uncongratulating

Related terms

• congratulation
• congratulations

Translations

to express one’s sympathetic pleasure or joy to the person(s) it is felt for

Arabic: هَنَّأَ (hannaʔa), يُهَنِّئُ (yuhanniʔu) (non-past) Armenian: շնորհավորել (hy) (šnorhavorel) Azerbaijani: təbrik etmək Belarusian: віншава́ць (be) impf (vinšavácʹ), павіншава́ць pf (pavinšavácʹ) Bulgarian: поздравя́вам (bg) impf (pozdravjávam), честитя́ (bg) pf (čestitjá) Catalan: felicitar (ca), congratular (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 祝賀 / 祝贺 (zh) (zhùhè), 道喜 (zh) (dàoxǐ) Chukchi: анъякаԓек (anʺjakaḷek) Cornish: keslowenhe Czech: blahopřát (cs) impf, gratulovat impf Danish: gratulere Dutch: feliciteren (nl), gelukwensen (nl) Esperanto: gratuli (eo) Estonian: õnnitlema Finnish: onnitella (fi), toivottaa onnea French: féliciter (fr) Galician: folgarse (gl), congratular (gl) Georgian: მილოცვა (milocva), ულოცავს (ulocavs) German: gratulieren (de), beglückwünschen (de) Greek: συγχαίρω (el) (synchaíro) Hebrew: ברך (he) (berákh), פִרְגֵּן (firgén) (colloquial) Hindi: बधाई देना (badhāī denā) Hungarian: gratulál (hu) Ido: gratular (io) Japanese: 祝う (ja) (いわう, iwau) Kazakh: құттықтау (qūttyqtau) Khmer: សរសើរ (km) (sɑɑ saə), សូមជូនពរ (soom cuun pɔɔ) Korean: 축하하다 (ko) (chukhahada) Kyrgyz: куттуктоо (ky) (kuttuktoo) Latin: grātulor, congrātulor Latvian: apsveikt Lithuanian: sveikinti, pasveikinti Macedonian: че́сти impf (čésti) Malay: tahniah Manx: cogherjaghey Norwegian: Bokmål: gratulere (no) Ottoman Turkish: تبریك ایتمك (tebrik etmek) Persian: تبریک گفتن (tabrik goftan) Polish: gratulować (pl) impf, pogratulować (pl) pf, winszować (pl) impf, powinszować pf (dated) Portuguese: parabenizar (pt), congratular (pt) Romanian: ferici (ro), ura (ro), felicita (ro) Russian: поздравля́ть (ru) impf (pozdravljátʹ), поздра́вить (ru) pf (pozdrávitʹ) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: честитати impf or pf Roman: čestitati (sh) impf or pf Slovak: blahoželať impf, gratulovať impf Slovene: čestitati impf, voščiti impf Spanish: felicitar (es), congratular (es) Swedish: gratulera (sv), lyckönska, gratta (sv) Tagalog: balangawan, magbalangaw Tajik: табрик кардан (tabrik kardan), муборакбод гуфтан (muborakbod guftan), табрик гуфтан (tabrik guftan) Telugu: అబినందించు (abinandiñcu) Thai: ฉลอง (th) (chà-lŏng) Turkish: tebrik etmek (tr), kutlamak (tr) Turkmen: gutlamak Ukrainian: поздоровля́ти impf (pozdorovljáty), поздоро́вити pf (pozdoróvyty), віншува́ти impf (vinšuváty), повіншува́ти pf (povinšuváty) Uzbek: tabriklamoq (uz) Vietnamese: chúc mừng (vi)

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

congratulate

1. inflection of congratulare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

congratulate f pl

1. feminine plural of congratulato

Latin

Participle

congrātulāte

1. vocative masculine singular of congrātulātus

Spanish

Verb

congratulate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of congratular combined with te