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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ceilidh.

An informal social gathering, especially one where traditional Irish or Scottish folk music is played, with dancing and storytelling.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈkeɪli/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈkɛjlɪj/British, Southern, Standard/ˈkeːli/Ireland/ˈkele/Scotland

  1. An informal social gathering, especially one where traditional Irish or Scottish folk music is played, with dancing and storytelling.

    Ireland · Scotland · also · attributive

  2. Ellipsis of ceilidh dance.

    Ireland · Scotland · abbreviation · also · alt-of · attributive · ellipsis
Where this word comes from

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.

verb/ˈkeɪli/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈkɛjlɪj/British, Southern, Standard/ˈkeːli/Ireland/ˈkele/Scotland

  1. To attend a ceilidh (noun sense 1).

    Ireland · Scotland · also · attributive · intransitive

  2. To dance a ceilidh dance.

    Ireland · Scotland · also · attributive · intransitive
Where this word comes from

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.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.