to communicate pleasure, approval, or praise to (a person or persons); compliment
2. (often foll by on)
to consider (oneself) clever or fortunate (as a result of)
she congratulated herself on her tact
3. obsolete
to greet
Derived forms
congratulation (conˌgratuˈlation)
noun
congratulator (conˈgratuˌlator)
noun
congratulatory (conˈgratulatory) or congratulative (conˈgratulative)
adjective
Word origin
C16: from Latin congrātulārī, from grātulārī to rejoice, from grātus pleasing
felicitation in American English
(fɪˌlɪsɪˈteiʃən)
noun
an expression of good wishes; congratulation
Word origin
[1700–10; felicitate + -ion]This word is first recorded in the period 1700–10. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: cirrus, cozy, emphatic, marquise, sliding scale-ion is a suffix, appearing in words of Latin origin, denoting action or condition, usedin Latin and in English to form nouns from stems of Latin adjectives (communion; union), verbs (legion; opinion), and esp. past participles (allusion; creation; fusion; notion; torsion)