applaud

verb ap·plaud \ ə-ˈplȯd \

|Updated on: 20 Jun 2018

Examples: applaud in a Sentence

applauded; applauding; applauds

intransitive verb

: to express approval especially by clapping the hands

The audience applauded at the end of the performance.

transitive verb

1 : to express approval of : praise

I applaud her efforts to lose weight.

2 : to show approval of especially by clapping the hands

Spectators applauded the team.

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applaudable

play \-ˈplȯ-də-bəl\ adjective

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applaudably

play \-blē\ adverb

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applauder

noun

See applaud defined for English-language learners

See applaud defined for kids

Examples of applaud in a Sentence

Everyone applauded the graduates as they entered the auditorium.
The audience stood and applauded her performance.
We applaud the decision to lower taxes.
I applaud their efforts to clean up the city, but they must do more.
Rather than being criticized for her honesty, she should be applauded for it.

Recent Examples of applaud from the Web

While Nell Lewis applauded academic freedom, her brother, Kemp Lewis, led a campaign to punish those who sponsored Hughes.

— Longreads, "Nell Battle Lewis, Storyteller for Jim Crow," 25 May 2018
County Executive Allan Kittleman applauded the project at the announcement outside the Ellicott City Colored School on Frederick Road.

— kate magill, Columbia Flier, "High-tech flood monitoring planned for Ellicott City watershed," 21 May 2018
At the beginning of his talk, Pence singled out NASA's acting administrator, Robert Lightfoot, for a 30-year career at the space agency and applauded his service.

— eric berger, Ars Technica, "After 15 months, NASA finally has an administrator [Updated]," 19 Apr. 2018
Companies and countries that produce low-cadmium fertilizer applaud the new limits, which threaten to upend a €25 billion industry—but others are fiercely opposed.

— natasha gilbert, Science | AAAS, "European Union debates controversial plans to limit cadmium in fertilizer," 10 Apr. 2018
While casually applauding next to her seatmate Chris Messina, Garner suddenly stopped, her facial expression going from neutral to totally perplexed.

— jackie frere, Redbook, "Jennifer Garner's Funny Oscars Moment Is What Everybody's Talking About This Morning," 5 Mar. 2018
Rick Knight, a professor emeritus at Colorado State University’s Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, who has for decades studied what happens where human communities meet ecosystems, applauds the authors’ efforts.

— christopher solomon, Outside Online, "Humans Are Turning Mammals More Nocturnal," 14 June 2018
All in all, the show was such a benign portrayal of Trumpland that Trump himself applauded it.

— spencer kornhaber, The Atlantic, "The Roseanne Fantasy Is Over," 30 May 2018
Barr – whose own problematic tweets have furthered Trump's most divisive and inflammatory conspiracy theories, among other things – doesn't mind that Trump applauds himself for boosting her ratings.

— refinery29.com, "Roseanne's Comeback Season Had So Many Tributes To Trump Without Even Uttering His Name," 23 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'applaud.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.