party
Pluralparties
Verbparties, partying, partied
Pluralparties
Formsparties, partying, partied
- 1A social gathering of invited guests, usually with food, drink, and entertainment, often held to celebrate an occasion or sometimes so a host can sell goods to guests.
They hosted a dinner party to celebrate their anniversary.
After the wedding, the reception turned into a lively party that lasted past midnight.
UsageYou have, throw or give a party, and go to a party or are at one.
Similarcelebration, gathering, get-together
Note
Feist's song 'Any Party' (2017) plays on the group sense with the line 'no party's so sweet as a party of two'. There, a party of two is both a celebration and a couple.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Feist performed 'Any Party', released in 2017. en.wiktionary.org
- The song contains the quoted wording. scribd.com
- The phrase supports the interpretation of a gathering involving a romantic couple. coupdemainmagazine.com
- 2An organized political group that contests elections and aims to form or take part in government; 'the Party' often means the ruling Communist Party of a one-party state.
The party nominated its candidate at the national convention.
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-FourUsageLowercase as a common noun, capital in a name: the Green Party. Members are in or of a party.
- 3A person or group constituting one side in a legal proceeding or contract.
The injured party filed a claim for damages.
Both parties to the dispute were ordered to attend mediation.
UsageCommon in party to a contract or dispute, the injured party and a third party.
Note
Here the word keeps the meaning of its Old French source, partie, 'side': a party is whoever stands on one side of a lawsuit or a contract, whether a single person, a company or a group. Contract boilerplate names them in fixed phrases such as the party of the first part. Sir John Davies, writing in 1612, could call a murder victim simply 'the party slain'.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Party derives from Old French partie, meaning 'side'. en.wiktionary.org
- The Davies work containing the quotation was first published in 1612. catalogue.nli.ie
- Sir John Davies used 'the party slain' to refer to a homicide victim. celt.ucc.ie
- 4
- 5Someone who takes part in an action or affair, or acts as an accessory to it, used with to.
The lawyer warned that anyone who hid the money would become a party to the fraud.
I will not be a party to deceiving them, whatever the reward.
UsageCommon in be a party to something, often in refusals: I won't be a party to that.
Similarparticipant, accessory, accomplice
Note
The phrase borrows the weight of the courtroom sense, which is why it suggests complicity rather than mere presence. Someone who is a party to a scheme shares responsibility for it.
- 6A group of people brought together for a shared purpose or task, such as travel, a search, or a military operation, often only for a limited time.
A rescue party set out at dawn to reach the stranded climbers.
The restaurant can seat a party of twelve in the back room.
UsageCommon in a party of + number, search party and rescue party.
Similargroup, team, band, squad, company
Note
As a collective noun, it can take a plural verb when the members act as individuals. Jane Austen writes in Pride and Prejudice (1813) that 'the whole party were still standing and talking together very agreeably.'
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice. exhibits.library.illinois.edu
- Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813; the first-edition title page bears that year. en.wikisource.org
- The quoted words occur in the narrator's account in Chapter 15, with the plural verb 'were'. gutenberg.org
- 7A body of people forming one side in a dispute or contest, or united in support of a cause or opinion against others; a faction.
The peace party in the council argued against the war, but the hawks prevailed.
He emerged as the leader of the reforming party in the assembly.
Note
The broad sense the political party grew from covers any body of people on one side of a quarrel, contest or cause. Like the legal sense, it keeps the old meaning 'side'.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The electoral-party meaning developed as a specialization of the older faction meaning; Wiktionary places it beneath that sense and dates the two to approximately the 1680s and 1320s respectively. en.wiktionary.org
- The faction and legal senses preserve the historical meaning ‘side’, found in the Old French source word. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 8A set of active player characters organized together as a single adventuring group.
Before the boss fight, she healed everyone in her party and saved the game.
A balanced party usually includes a healer, a tank, and damage dealers.
Note
A gamer's party is the band of player characters adventuring together, in tabletop role-playing and online play alike. The group is treated as a unit that regroups, rests and fights as one. Players weigh its makeup, and a balanced party mixes a healer, a tank and damage dealers. The verb to party with someone comes from this use.
- 9
- 10A person or individual, especially referred to in a playful, joking, or slightly disrespectful way.
A rather odd party had been asking after you at the tavern.
`These young parties have a way of looking at one, sir,' he would say apologetically, `which I don't call respectable.'
1886, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of AdventureUsageUsually with a judging adjective: an odd party, some wealthy party.
Similarcharacter, individual, person, fellow
Note
A Victorian way of pointing at someone without naming them. In H. Rider Haggard's She (1886–87), a speaker grumbles that 'these young parties have a way of looking at one.'
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Party was used for an individual in Victorian English. en.wiktionary.org
- H. Rider Haggard wrote She. en.wikisource.org
- Use 1887 under the stipulated first-edition title-page rule. October 1886–January 1887 is the serialization period. en.wikisource.org
- A character in She complains using the quoted words. gutenberg.org
- 11To take recreational drugs, typically for enjoyment.
Their crowd would party hard, chasing every new high they could find.
She quit partying after a close friend overdosed.
UsageOften as a coded question: Do you party? An innocent invitation may be heard this way.
Note
This euphemism works by deniability: 'Do you party?' asks about drugs while sounding like an invitation. In Daniel Nicholas Shields's Firewoman (2004), the boy who asks it follows up with 'Do you smoke?' The celebratory meaning is always available as cover.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Daniel Nicholas Shields wrote Firewoman. en.wiktionary.org
- A boy asks whether Jennifer parties and then asks whether she smokes. en.wiktionary.org
- 12To engage in casual sexual relationships or flings; to sow one's wild oats.
- 13Favoring one political party over others; partisan in outlook.
The newspaper was accused of party bias in its election coverage.
He dismissed the criticism as mere party spirit.
UsageGoes before a noun: party politics, party spirit, party bias.
Similarpartisan
- 14A small group of birds or mammals, considered as a single unit.
A party of jays moved noisily through the oak canopy.
The naturalist spotted a party of otters fishing in the shallows.
Note
Naturalists use party for a small, loose group of animals, alongside larger collective nouns rather than in place of them. Mark Brazil's Birds of East Asia (2009) writes of 'small parties and flocks'. Birds are not the limit: The Australian in 1830 reported 'small parties of cattle'. D. D. Cunningham in 1903 used it for a mixed group of mynas.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- The title is Birds of East Asia, without an initial 'The'. assets.press.princeton.edu
- Brazil's book was first published in 2009. api.pageplace.de
- Brazil uses the wording 'small parties and flocks'. en.wiktionary.org
- The Australian reported 'small parties of cattle' in 1830. en.wiktionary.org
- D. D. Cunningham used 'party' in a 1903 publication. archive.org
- Cunningham's party of mynas included males and females. en.wiktionary.org
- 15A feeling of solidarity with and loyalty to one's own political party; partisanship, especially in political affairs.
Note
Here party is a feeling rather than a body of people, and it takes no article: votes swayed by party, judgment clouded by party. That uncountable use is now dated and rare. Modern writers say partisanship instead, while the adjective meaning 'partisan' lives on in phrases such as party spirit and party bias.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Party can mean a feeling of political solidarity or partisanship. en.wiktionary.org
- Party has an adjective sense meaning partisan. en.wiktionary.org
- 16A part, share, or portion of a larger whole.
And so the moost party of the castel that was falle doune thorugh that dolorous stroke laye vpon Pellam and balyn thre dayes.
1470, Thomas Malory, “Capitulum xv”Note
The most literal sense stays closest to the Old French 'that which is divided' behind the 'side' sense. Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur uses it where modern English says part: 'the moost party of the castel' is simply the greater part of the castle. It is obsolete, and part or portion now do this work.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Party derives from Old French partie, literally 'that which is divided', which also meant side, part, portion or share. en.wiktionary.org
- Thomas Malory wrote Le Morte Darthur. gutenberg.org
- Le Morte Darthur contains the exact phrase 'the moost party of the castel'. en.wiktionary.org
- The quoted phrase means the greater part of the castle. gutenberg.org
- 17A person considered as a possible spouse, or a proposal to marry.
Note
A marriage-market word, now obsolete, it named someone weighed up as a possible husband or wife, or the proposed match itself. Fortune and family connections were the measure of a good one. In modern English, a match or a catch says the same thing.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Party formerly meant a prospective spouse or an offer of marriage. en.wiktionary.org
- 18A decision, resolution, or agreement reached between people.
- 19Partly; in part; to some extent.
Note
An obsolete adverb, its job is now done by partly. In old texts it is easily mistaken for the noun meaning 'part', since 'the most party' there means 'the most part'. To tell them apart, check what the word attaches to: the adverb qualifies a verb or adjective, as in party covered.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Party was an adverb meaning partly and is obsolete in that sense. en.wiktionary.org
- Party also formerly meant part as a noun; the most party means the most part. en.wiktionary.org
- The adverb can qualify a verb or adjective; party covered illustrates its meaning partly. en.wikipedia.org
- 20Shared by two adjoining properties and serving to divide them, as a wall or fence held in common.
Disputes over the party wall were settled under a special statute.
Now converging, now diverging, these fences presented a striking irregularity of contour. No fence was party, nor any part of any fence.
1953, Samuel Beckett, WattUsageMostly in compounds: party wall, party fence.
Note
Said of fences and walls, the adjective is rare standing alone and lives mainly in compounds such as party wall. That rarity is what makes Samuel Beckett's line in Watt (1953) sound so deliberately odd: 'No fence was party, nor any part of any fence.' It comes from the same 'parted' source as the heraldic adjective.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Samuel Beckett wrote Watt. en.wikipedia.org
- Watt was first published in 1953. search.worldcat.org
- The quoted sentence occurs in Watt with the wording given. en.wiktionary.org
- The property-boundary adjective shares the Old French 'parted' etymology of the heraldic adjective. en.wiktionary.org
- 21Of a shield or its field, split into sections of contrasting tinctures, usually equal in size, typically along the line an ordinary would follow.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
It comes from Middle English "party," borrowed via Anglo-Norman from Old French "partie" ("side, part, share, division"), literally "that which is divided," the noun use of the past participle of "partir" ("to divide, separate"). This goes back to Latin "partire" ("to share, divide") and "pars" ("a part, piece"), first attested around 1300.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 8 facts
- English party comes from Middle English party, through Anglo-Norman, from Old French partie. en.wiktionary.org
- Old French partie meant side, part, share or division. en.wiktionary.org
- The literal etymological meaning is that which is divided. en.wiktionary.org
- Partie is a noun formed from the past participle of partir. fr.wiktionary.org
- Old French partir meant to divide or separate. en.wiktionary.org
- The verb derives from Latin partire, meaning to share or divide, ultimately from pars. fr.wiktionary.org
- Latin pars meant a part or piece. en.wiktionary.org
- English party is first attested around 1300. en.wiktionary.org
Latin partītus ("parted"), the past participle of partiō ("to divide"), gave Old French parti ("parted"), which became Middle English party.