CELEBRITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does celebrity mean? 

• CELEBRITY (noun)
  The noun CELEBRITY has 2 senses:

1. a widely known person

2. the state or quality of being widely honored and acclaimed

  Familiarity information: CELEBRITY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CELEBRITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A widely known person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

celebrity; famous person

Context example:

he was a baseball celebrity

Hypernyms ("celebrity" is a kind of...):

important person; influential person; personage (a person whose actions and opinions strongly influence the course of events)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "celebrity"):

immortal (a person (such as an author) of enduring fame)

lion; social lion (a celebrity who is lionized (much sought after))

guiding light; leading light; luminary; notability; notable (a celebrity who is an inspiration to others)

personality (a person of considerable prominence)

toast (a celebrity who receives much acclaim and attention)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The state or quality of being widely honored and acclaimed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

celebrity; fame; renown

Hypernyms ("celebrity" is a kind of...):

honor; honour; laurels (the state of being honored)

 Context examples 

Her PR firm represents some of the biggest celebrities in the world.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

It was my neighbour Warr who very good-humouredly pointed out to me all these celebrities, the echoes of whose fame had been wafted down even to our little Sussex village.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She took them with her one night to a select symposium, held in honor of several celebrities.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Here, on the left hand, there stands a shop window filled with photographs of the celebrities and beauties of the day.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"A" is often used to denote something or someone of a better or more prestigious quality or status: A, A+ or A*, the best grade that can be assigned by teachers for students' schoolwork; A grade for clean restaurants; A-List celebrities, etc. The number 1 is used in a similar way.

(A, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

For years I have endeavoured to break through the veil which shrouded it, and at last the time came when I seized my thread and followed it, until it led me, after a thousand cunning windings, to ex-Professor Moriarty of mathematical celebrity.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The scientific celebrities, forgetting their mollusks and glacial periods, gossiped about art, while devoting themselves to oysters and ices with characteristic energy; the young musician, who was charming the city like a second Orpheus, talked horses; and the specimen of the British nobility present happened to be the most ordinary man of the party.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Haughty English, lively French, sober Germans, handsome Spaniards, ugly Russians, meek Jews, free-and-easy Americans, all drive, sit, or saunter here, chatting over the news, and criticizing the latest celebrity who has arrived—Ristori or Dickens, Victor Emmanuel or the Queen of the Sandwich Islands.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

"I've never met so many celebrities!" Daisy exclaimed. "I liked that man—what was his name?—with the sort of blue nose."

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

"Perhaps you know that lady." Gatsby indicated a gorgeous, scarcely human orchid of a woman who sat in state under a white plum tree. Tom and Daisy stared, with that peculiarly unreal feeling that accompanies the recognition of a hitherto ghostly celebrity of the movies.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)