CONGRATULATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does congratulation mean? 

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

1. the act of acknowledging that someone has an occasion for celebration

2. (usually plural) an expression of pleasure at the success or good fortune of another

  Familiarity information: CONGRATULATION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONGRATULATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of acknowledging that someone has an occasion for celebration

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

congratulation; felicitation

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

speech act (the use of language to perform some act)

Derivation:

congratulate (express congratulations)

congratulate (pride or congratulate (oneself) for an achievement)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(usually plural) an expression of pleasure at the success or good fortune of another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

congratulation; felicitation

Context example:

I sent them my sincere congratulations on their marriage

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

expression; verbal expression; verbalism (the communication (in speech or writing) of your beliefs or opinions)

Domain usage:

plural; plural form (the form of a word that is used to denote more than one)

Derivation:

congratulate (say something to someone that expresses praise)

congratulate (express congratulations)

congratulate (be proud of)

 Context examples 

He addressed himself to Miss Bennet, with a polite congratulation; Mr. Hurst also made her a slight bow, and said he was “very glad;” but diffuseness and warmth remained for Bingley's salutation.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

But it was a very different Challenger who greeted us in the morning—a Challenger with contentment and self-congratulation shining from his whole person.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But they had seen no one from the Parsonage, not a creature, and had heard no tidings beyond a friendly note of congratulation and inquiry from Mrs. Grant to Lady Bertram.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Seeing me, she roused herself: she made a sort of effort to smile, and framed a few words of congratulation; but the smile expired, and the sentence was abandoned unfinished.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And here, instead of its being a matter of condolence, it turns out to be one of congratulation.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

"A characteristic, but not exactly complimentary, congratulation," returned Laurie, still in an abject attitude, but beaming with satisfaction.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It is not for one, situated, through his original errors and a fortuitous combination of unpropitious events, as is the foundered Bark (if he may be allowed to assume so maritime a denomination), who now takes up the pen to address you—it is not, I repeat, for one so circumstanced, to adopt the language of compliment, or of congratulation.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Between them an elderly, grey-bearded man, wearing a short surplice over a light tweed suit, had evidently just completed the wedding service, for he pocketed his prayer-book as we appeared, and slapped the sinister bridegroom upon the back in jovial congratulation.

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

He staggered to his feet and looked down upon his rescuer, who had raised himself upon his elbow, and was smiling faintly at the buzz of congratulation and of praise which broke from the squires around him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To his sombre and cynical spirit all popular applause was always abhorrent, and nothing amused him more at the end of a successful case than to hand over the actual exposure to some orthodox official, and to listen with a mocking smile to the general chorus of misplaced congratulation.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)