Word.ws English Dictionary

high five

/haɪ faɪv/US/haɪ faɪv/

high five noun: a gesture of celebration or victory in which two people slap the palms of their hands together at shoulder height or higher.

high five: a gesture of celebration or victory in which two people slap the palms of their hands together at...
Image: Toasterb, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

high five (countable and uncountable, plural high fives)

  1. A gesture of celebration or victory in which two people slap the palms of their hands together at shoulder height or higher.
    • Through the window I could see Nikki and Kim doing high fives in the car.1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 144
  2. A game which uses a technique providing a user with an emotional reward after they complete a minor task or achievement.
  3. (uncountable) The game of cinch.

Verb

high five (third-person singular simple present high fives, present participle high fiving, simple past and past participle high fived)

  1. (transitive) To slap high fives.
    • Like a lot of my fellow passengers — indie-rock fans who had signed up for a three-day voyage full of bands and beverages — I’d never been on a cruise before. So I don’t know whether most of them begin with a staff member high-fiving each and every person who comes off the gangway.2012 March 30, Joe Levy, “Rockers at Sea”, in The New York Times

high five meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Tagalog and Arabic

high five in Tamil

ஓர் அமெரிக்க, மேல்நாட்டு வழக்கம், வெற்றியைக் கொண்டாட இருவர்

high five in Urdu

gesture
دے تالی de tālī
to slap high five
دے تالی de tālī

high five in Tagalog

gesture
apir
to slap high five
apir

high five in Arabic

gesture
تَخْمِيسَة taḵmīsa, كَفَّك kaffak
More languagesFewer languages
high five in Malay
sep
high five in Indonesian
tos

Forms of high five

Noun
pluralhigh fives
alternative formhigh-five
Verb
third-person singular presenthigh fives
present participlehigh fiving
past participlehigh fived
pasthigh fived

Origin of high five

From high + five. The five refers to the five fingers of each hand.

Questions about high five

What does high five mean?
High five means a gesture of celebration or victory in which two people slap the palms of their hands together at shoulder height or higher.
What is high five in Tamil?
High five in Tamil is ஓர் அமெரிக்க, மேல்நாட்டு வழக்கம், வெற்றியைக் கொண்டாட இருவர். See High five meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is high five?
High five can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce high five?
High five is pronounced /haɪ faɪv/.
What is the plural of high five?
The plural of high five is high fives.

Words near high five in the dictionary

  1. high fantasy
  2. high fashion
  3. High Fens
  4. high fidelity
  5. high finance
  6. high five
  7. high fived
  8. high fives
  9. high fiving
  10. high flier
  11. high fliers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: high five (page history and authors); high five (Tamil Wiktionary) (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-high five.wav.

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