exclaim

English

Alternative forms

• exclame [16th–17th c.]

Etymology

From Middle French exclamer, from Latin exclāmō, exclāmāre (“call out”), from ex- + clāmō (“to call”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛkˈskleɪm/, /ɪkˈskleɪm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪm

Verb

exclaim (third-person singular simple present exclaims, present participle exclaiming, simple past and past participle exclaimed)

1. (intransitive) To cry out suddenly, from some strong emotion.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

     I am a soldier, and unapt to weep,
     Or to exclaim on fortune’s fickleness.

   • 1925, Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985, p. 114,^[1]

     […] he could remember Sally tearing off a rose, stopping to exclaim at the beauty of the cabbage leaves in the moonlight […]

   • 2011, Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger’s Child, New York: Knopf, Part 4, Chapter 1, p. 285,^[2]

     […] at the front door below a few guests were leaving, and the bright rectangle widened and narrowed as they slipped out into the night, laughing and exclaiming about the weather.

2. (transitive) To say suddenly and with strong emotion.
   • 1603, Michael Drayton, The Barrons Wars in the Raigne of Edward the Second, London: N. Ling, “Alice Countesse of Salisburie, to the blacke Prince,” p. 31,^[3]

     Must she be forc’d, t’exclaime th’iniurious wrong?

     Offred by him, whom she hath lou’d so long?

     Nay, I will tell, and I durst almost sweare,

     Edward will blush, when he his fault shall heare.

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”

   • 2017, André Aciman, Enigma Variations, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, “Manfred,” p. 135,^[4]

     You never pump your arm when you score, you never exclaim anything, you don’t even smile when you fire a perfect backhand straight down the line.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:shout

Derived terms

• exclaimer

Translations

to cry out

• Arabic: صَاحَ (ar) (ṣāḥa), صَرَخَ (ar) (ṣaraḵa)
• Belarusian: ускліка́ць impf (usklikácʹ), усклі́кнуць pf (usklíknucʹ), выгу́кваць impf (vyhúkvacʹ), вы́гукнуць pf (výhuknucʹ)
• Bulgarian: възкли́квам (bg) (vǎzklíkvam)
• Catalan: exclamar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 感嘆／感叹 (zh) (gǎntàn), 感叹 (zh) (gǎntàn), 呼喊 (zh) (hūhǎn)

• Czech: zvolat (cs)
• Finnish: huudahtaa (fi)
• French: exclamer (fr)
• German: ausrufen (de)
• Hungarian: felkiált (hu)
• Interlingua: exclamar
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: esclamare (it)
• Japanese: 叫ぶ (ja) (さけぶ, sakebu)
• Korean: 외치다 (ko) (oechida)
• Latin: exclāmō
• Polish: wołać (pl) impf, wykrzykiwać (pl) impf
• Portuguese: exclamar (pt)
• Romanian: a exclama (ro)
• Russian: восклица́ть (ru) impf (vosklicátʹ), воскли́кнуть (ru) pf (vosklíknutʹ), вскрича́ть (ru) impf (vskričátʹ), вскри́кивать (ru) pf (vskríkivatʹ)
• Spanish: exclamar (es)
• Swedish: utbrista (sv)
• Ukrainian: вигу́кувати impf (vyhúkuvaty), ви́гукнути pf (výhuknuty), скри́кувати impf (skrýkuvaty), скри́кнути pf (skrýknuty)

Noun

exclaim (plural exclaims)

1. (obsolete) Exclamation; outcry, clamor.
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene 2]:

     Foul devil, for God’s sake, hence, and trouble us not;
     For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
     Fill’d it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.

   • 1635, John Donne, “His parting form her”:

     Oh fortune, thou’rt not worth my least exclame [...].