ceilidh
Syllables: ceil·idh/ˈkeɪli/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈkɛjlɪj/
ceilidh noun: an informal social gathering, especially one where traditional Irish or Scottish folk music is played, with dancing and storytelling. Also the ellipsis of ceilidh dance.
Noun
ceilidh (plural ceilidhs or ceilidhean)
- An informal social gathering, especially one where traditional Irish or Scottish folk music is played, with dancing and storytelling.
- The fire in the centre of the room was almost a necessity of the good old Ceilidh days. When the people congregated in the evening, the circle could be extended to the full capacity of the room, and occasionally it became necessary to have a circle within a circle. […] The circle became extended by...1875 December, Alastair Og, “The Highland Ceilidh”, in Alexander Mackenzie, Alexander MacGregor, editors, The Celtic Magazine: […], volume I, number II, Inverness, Inverness-shire: A[lexander] & W....
- [A]ll the details of it are recited with minute exactness around the fireside during the winter ceilidhean.1916, The Celtic Monthly: A Magazine for Highlanders, Glasgow: Archibald Sinclair, →OCLC, page 72; republished in John Mac Cormick, The Island of Mull = An t-Eilean Muileach: Its History, Scenes and...
Verb
ceilidh (third-person singular simple present ceilidhs, present participle ceilidhing, simple past and past participle ceilidhed)
- To attend a ceilidh (noun sense 1).
- Captain Mac was certainly making the most of his enforced stay at safe anchorage. He had told Fergus he would ceilidh the night away with the help of Tam McKinnon's home-brewed malt whisky. From the sound of it one half of the ceilidh was on board ship, the other half no doubt in Tam McKinnon's...1983, Christine Marion Fraser, chapter 1, in Children of Rhanna, London: Fontana, HarperCollins Publishers, →ISBN, part I (Winter 1941), page 7
- Some nights we went ceilidhing to the home of Danny and Paddy. Their mother was a beautiful singer and she taught many of us how to dance while Danny played the accordion. There were nights when we all sat around the hearth fire singing the old Irish songs and locally composed ballads which are...1988, William K. Parke, “Escape from the Village”, in A Fermanagh Childhood, Belfast, Northern Ireland: The Friar’s Bush Press, →ISBN, page 102
- To dance a ceilidh dance.
- Nightly the scratch of fiddles and the thud of a reel-set staccatoed the timbers [of the ship sailing from Londonderry to Boston], as the peasant Irish ceilidhed their way to 'Amerikay'.2001, Brendan Graham, chapter 5, in The Element of Fire, London: HarperCollins Publishers, →ISBN, page 27
Also used as
ceilidh is also the ellipsis of ceilidh dance.
Examples of ceilidh in a sentence
- The fire in the centre of the room was almost a necessity of the good old Ceilidh days.1875 December, Alastair Og, “The Highland Ceilidh”, in Alexander Mackenzie, Alexander MacGregor, editors, The Celtic Magazine: […], volume...
- These happy and informative ceilidhean are past, and we are the poorer.1930, William Mackenzie, Skye Traditions Reflections and Memories, Glasgow: Alexander Maclaren & Sons, →OCLC, page 32:
- Traditionally, while the men were away fishing, the women would gather in the evening for a ceilidh where they would sew and sing or talk and then finish with tea.1953 July, Karen Armstrong, “Women, Tourism, Politics”, in Michael Kenny, editor, Anthropological Quarterly, volume 50, number 3...
- Members of the College contributed to the enjoyment at local ceilidhs by playing the pipes and supplying an accordionist and a fiddler and dancers.1956, Piping Times, volume 9, Glasgow: League of Young Scots, College of Piping, →OCLC, page 7:
Forms of ceilidh
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | ceilidhs |
| plural | ceilidhean |
| alternative form | céilidh |
| alternative form | cèilidh |
| alternative form | ceilidhe |
| alternative form | céilidhe |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | ceilidhs |
| present participle | ceilidhing |
| past participle | ceilidhed |
| past | ceilidhed |
Origin of ceilidh
The noun is borrowed from Scottish Gaelic cèilidh (“a pilgrimage; a social call, visit; a sojourn; a social gathering with dancing, etc., ceilidh”) and Irish célidhe (archaic), céilí (“a social call, visit; a social gathering with dancing, etc., ceilidh”), both from Old Irish célide (“social call, visit”), from céile (“companion, fellow; neighbour”) (ultimately from Proto-Celtic *kēiliyos (“companion; servant”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- (“to settle”)) + -ide. The plural form ceilidhean is borrowed from Scottish Gaelic cèilidhean. The verb is derived from the noun.
Words formed from ceilidh
Phrases with ceilidh
Words that rhyme with ceilidh
Questions about ceilidh
- What does ceilidh mean?
- Ceilidh means an informal social gathering, especially one where traditional Irish or Scottish folk music is played, with dancing and storytelling.
- How do you use ceilidh in a sentence?
- The fire in the centre of the room was almost a necessity of the good old Ceilidh days.
- What part of speech is ceilidh?
- Ceilidh can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce ceilidh?
- Ceilidh is pronounced /ˈkeɪli/ (UK).
- What is the plural of ceilidh?
- The plural of ceilidh is ceilidhs.
Words near ceilidh in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ceilidh (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-ceilidh.wav.
Cite this entry: “ceilidh.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ceilidh. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.