Word.ws English Dictionary

celt

/sɛlt/

celt noun: a prehistoric chisel-bladed tool.

Noun (1)

celt (plural celts)

  1. A prehistoric chisel-bladed tool.
    • The later division of the Bronze age is characterised by the appearance of swords, spears, palstaves, and socketed celts.1880, William Boyd Dawkins, Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period

Noun (2) capitalized: Celt

IPA/kɛlt/

Celt (plural Celts)

  1. (historical) A member of one of the ancient peoples of Western Europe called Celtae by the Romans.
    • The holiday evolved over centuries as it was observed by different groups, from the Celts to Germans to the Pennsylvania Dutch and eventually, by those in other parts of the US.2023 February 1, Scottie Andrew, “The bizarre history of Groundhog Day”, in CNN, archived from the original on 18 Jul 2024
    Synonyms:
    Keltoi
  2. A member of any of the (modern, Celtic) peoples who speak Celtic languages.

Adjective capitalized: Celt

IPA/kɛlt/

Celt (comparative more Celt, superlative most Celt)

  1. Synonym of Celtic.
    • In the thick of parties we become very Celt, disgusting the dull.1972 spring–summer, John Tripp, “Anglo-Welsh Testimony”, in Transatlantic Review, number 42/43, →ISSN, page 89
    • Like Pris, he took after their mother, more Celt than English, wild and dramatic and mercurially alive.2006, Stephanie Laurens, What Price Love?, London: Piatkus, Little, Brown Book Group, published 2011, →ISBN, page 5
    Synonyms:
    Celtic

Proper noun capitalized: CELT

CELT

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of Constrained Energy Lapped Transform: a royalty-free lossy audio compression format for use in low-latency audio communication.

Synonyms of celt

Forms of celt

Noun
pluralcelts
pluralCelts
Adjective
comparativemore Celt
superlativemost Celt

Origin of celt

From Latin celtis (“chisel”), very probably a ghost word originating from a copyist's error in the Vulgate Bible, but taken as genuine and subsequently used in Medieval Latin.

From Latin Celtae (singular Celta) from Ancient Greek Κελτοί (Keltoí). English Celts is from the 17th century. Until the mid 19th century, /sɛlt/ is the only recorded pronunciation. A consciously archaizing pronunciation /kɛlt/ was advocated during Irish and Welsh nationalism beginning in the 1850s.

Words formed from celt

Words that rhyme with celt

12 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about celt

What does celt mean?
Celt means a prehistoric chisel-bladed tool.
What part of speech is celt?
Celt can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce celt?
Celt is pronounced /sɛlt/.
What is the plural of celt?
The plural of celt is celts.

Words near celt in the dictionary

  1. celsitude
  2. celsitudes
  3. celsius
  4. Celsius scale
  5. Celsus
  6. celt
  7. Celt-Iberian
  8. Celt-Iberians
  9. CELTA
  10. CELTAs
  11. Celtchar

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: celt (page history and authors); Celt (page history and authors); CELT (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-Celt.ogg.

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