fete

1 of 2

noun

ˈfāt  ˈfet 

variants or fête

1

: festival

Class Day, the great fete of the year

—Catherine D. Bowen

2

a

: a lavish often outdoor entertainment

a fete in the park with music and performances

b

: a large elaborate party

a fete to celebrate the museum's centennial

fete

2 of 2

verb

variants or fête

feted or fêted; feting or fêting

transitive verb

1

: to honor or commemorate with a fete

2

: to pay high honor to

Did you know?

Fete is a word worth celebrating. It's been around since Middle English, when it was used in a manuscript to refer to "fetes, spectacles and other worldly vanytees." Since the 19th century, fete has been doing double duty, also serving as a verb meaning "to honor or commemorate with a fete." You can honor fete by remembering that it entered English from Middle French, and that it derives ultimately from the Old French feste, meaning "festival"—a root that, not surprisingly, also gave English the word feast. Because of its French ties, you will sometimes see fete spelled with a circumflex above the first e (fête), as that's how it appears in that language.

Synonyms

Noun

• affair
• bash
• binge
• blast
• blowout
• do
• event
• function
• get-together
• party
• reception
• shindig

Verb

• honor
• recognize

Examples of fete in a Sentence

Noun

won a prize at the church fete

the heiress wanted to do something with her life other than shuttle from fete to fete

Verb

They feted the winning team with banquets and parades.

the returning servicemen and servicewomen were feted with a week's worth of celebrations

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Your festive fete needs one of these recipes on this menu! —Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 26 Nov. 2024

Impossibly dewy at 83, Martha Stewart recently took to Instagram to share an all-Merit-beauty routine that gives off just the glow for the season of fetes. —Jenny Berg, Vogue, 24 Nov. 2024

Verb

The Berlin Film Festival is to fete Tilda Swinton with an Honorary Golden Bear for her career achievement. —Andreas Wiseman, Deadline, 20 Dec. 2024

Robert DeNiro, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Al Pacino, and Laurence Fishburne were there to honor Coppola, while Andy Garcia and Debbie Allen feted Sandoval. —Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 9 Dec. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun and Verb

Middle English fete, from Middle French, from Old French feste — more at feast

First Known Use

Noun

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1814, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

fete

1 of 2 noun

variants or fête

ˈfāt 

1

: festival sense 1

2

: a fancy entertainment or party

fete

2 of 2 verb

variants or fête

feted or fêted; feting or fêting

1

: to honor with a fete

2

: to pay high honor to