Word.ws English Dictionary

Cecilia

/sɪˈsiːli.ə/

Cecilia proper noun: a female given name from Latin.

Proper noun

Cecilia

  1. A female given name from Latin.
    • Hark how the flutes and trumpets raise / At bright Cecilia's name, their lays!1694, Joseph Addison, A Song for St. Cecilia's Day
    • ‘Sissy is not a name,’ said Mr. Gradgrind. ‘Don’t call yourself Sissy. Call yourself Cecilia.’ ‘It’s father as calls me Sissy, sir,’ returned the young girl in a trembling voice, and with another curtsey. ‘Then he has no business to do it,’ said Mr. Gradgrind. ‘Tell him he mustn’t. Cecilia Jupe....1854, Charles Dickens, “Book I, Chapter II”, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC

Examples of Cecilia in a sentence

  • Call yourself Cecilia.’ ‘It’s father as calls me Sissy, sir,’ returned the young girl in a trembling voice, and with another curtsey. ‘Then he has no business to do it,’ said Mr.1854, Charles Dickens, “Book I, Chapter II”, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC:
  • Because they had named her Cecilia, her parents fancied that the matter of her life and character had been fairly well settled.1928, Lynn Montross, “Silent Minstrel”, in American Magazine, volume 106, page 14:

Origin of Cecilia

From Latin Caecilia, feminine form of Caecilius, a Roman family name possibly derived from the byname caecus (“blind”). Popularized by Saint Cecilia, third century Roman martyr, the patron saint of music. Doublet of Sheila.

Words that rhyme with Cecilia

11 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about Cecilia

What does Cecilia mean?
Cecilia means a female given name from Latin.
How do you use Cecilia in a sentence?
Call yourself Cecilia.’ ‘It’s father as calls me Sissy, sir,’ returned the young girl in a trembling voice, and with another curtsey. ‘Then he has no business to do it,’ said Mr.
What part of speech is Cecilia?
Cecilia is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Cecilia?
Cecilia is pronounced /sɪˈsiːli.ə/.

Words near Cecilia in the dictionary

  1. Cecil County
  2. Cecil Hills
  3. Cecil house
  4. Cecil Park
  5. Cecile
  6. Cecilia
  7. cecilian
  8. cecilians
  9. cecils
  10. Cecilton
  11. Cecily

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Cecilia (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Cecilia.wav.

Cite this entry: “Cecilia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cecilia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.