congratulations

1. 1
   interjection

   Used to express praise and approval, often followed by on and the success or happy event it greets.

   Congratulations on the new job. They're lucky to have you.

   Congratulations to everyone who finished the marathon in today's heat!

   Similarkudos, bravo

   Note

   The exclamation keeps its plural form and builds with two prepositions: on for the achievement, to for the person, as in congratulations to the winners on a fine season. Said straight it is warm; said dryly it mocks something that hardly deserves praise, as when Paul Davis, writing to The Economist in 2013, offers congratulations on managing to use the phrase preponderant criterion in a chart.

2. 2
   words of praisenoun

   Plural of congratulation.

   The mayor sent his congratulations to the championship team.

   Congratulations poured in from former colleagues after the award was announced.

   Note

   As a noun it is something given and received: people offer, send or extend their congratulations, and congratulations pour in after good news. It takes a plural verb, as in congratulations are in order, and because it shares its spelling with the exclamation, a verb or a possessive such as my or our is what shows it is the noun.

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