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easter

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Easter¹

  • /ˈiːstə/ UK
  • /ˈistəɹ/ US

Rhymes with -iːstə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

The noun is derived from Middle English ester, from Old English ēastre, seemingly from Ēastre, a proposed Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn whose festival is thought to have been celebrated around the vernal equinox. Further from Proto-West Germanic *Austrā, from Proto-Germanic *Austrǭ, derived from either Proto-Indo-European *h₂ews- (“dawn; east”) or, more semantically plausible, from *austrą, *auzrą, a metathesized form of *wazrą (“spring (season)”), *-ǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *wósr̥ (“spring”).

The English word is cognate with German Low German Oostern (“Easter”), Old High German ōstarūn (modern German Ostern) and is possibly a doublet of east. Despite a modern folk etymology, not related to Ishtar.

The verb is derived from the noun.

noun Easters

  1. countable, uncountable A Christian feast commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated on the first Sunday (and Monday) following the full moon that occurs on or next after the vernal equinox, ranging in most of Western Christianity (such as Protestantism and Roman Catholicism) from March 22 to April 25, and in Eastern Christianity (such as the Coptic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church) from April 4 to May 8. We spent each of the past five Easters together as a family.

    Similar: Easter Day, Easter Sunday

  2. countable, uncountable Eastertide (“the period from Easter to Whitsun”). Meronyms: Easter Day, Easter Sunday
  3. countable, dated, figuratively, specifically, uncountable Usually preceded by an inflection of make: the act of receiving the Eucharist during Easter.
  4. Ireland, UK, abbreviation, countable, ellipsis, uncountable Ellipsis of Easter term
  5. countable, uncountable A festival held in honour of the goddess Eostre or Ostara, celebrated at the vernal equinox or within the month of April; Eostre, Ostara.
  6. countable, obsolete, uncountable The Jewish Passover. After two dayes folowed eſter⸝ and the dayes of ſwete breed. And the hye preſtꝭ [prestis] and ſcrybꝭ [scrybis] ſought meanes⸝ howe they myght take hym [Jesus] by crafte and putt hym to deeth.

proper noun

  1. A surname.

verb Easters · Eastering · Eastered

  1. intransitive To celebrate Easter.
  2. intransitive To spend the Easter season in some place.

easter²

  • /ˈiː.stə/ UK
  • /ˈi.stəɹ/ US

Rhymes with -iːstə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

From Old English eastera, eastra. Compare norther, souther, wester.

adjective more easter · most easter

  1. dialectal Eastern. In the mean while, as our apartment was a corner one, and looked both east and north, I ran to the easter casement to look after Drummond.
  2. comparative comparative form of east: more east

noun easters

  1. An easterly wind (a wind blowing from the east); especially, a strong one; a storm of such winds. A northeaster in one place may be an easter, a norther, or a souther in some other locality.

    Similar: east wind, eastwind, easterly, East

verb easters · eastering · eastered

  1. To move toward the east. Off Tilbury the Alcyone's topsail-yard was carried away just forward of the slings; she set a jib-headed one; at Thames Haven the wind eastered ...

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: easterly, east wind, pasch, passover, santa, seder, doomsday, eastern, resurrection, esther, pasqua, easter sunday, pascha, easter day, eastertide, eastertime

Translations

Every language

noun Christian feast commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ

Españolpascua, Pascua
한국어부활절 buhwaljeol
日本語復活祭 fukkatsusai, 聖大パスハ seidai pasuha, イースター īsutā
中文復活節 /复活节 Fùhuójié
हिन्दीईस्टर īsṭar
PortuguêsPáscoa
FrançaisPâques
DeutschOstern, Osterfest
ItalianoPasqua
ΕλληνικάΠάσχα Páscha
RomânăPaști, Paște
РусскийПа́сха Pásxa, Воскресе́ние Христо́во Voskresénije Xristóvo
Tiếng ViệtPhục sinh, lễ Phục sinh, Phục Sinh, lễ Phục Sinh
العربيةعِيد الْفِصْح ʕīd al-fiṣḥ, الْعِيد الْكَبِير al-ʕīd al-kabīr, عِيد الْقِيَامَة ʕīd al-qiyāma
עבריתפַּסְחָא páskha

noun festival held in honour of the goddess Eostre or Ostara

FrançaisOstara

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Cite this
MLA

"easter." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/easter. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

easter. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/easter

Chicago

"easter." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/easter.

BibTeX
@misc{easter_2026,
  title = {easter},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/easter},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}