hallelujah

• halleluia, halleluiah, halleluja, alleluia

From Hebrew הַלְלוּיָהּ (hal'luyáh, “Praise Yah”).

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌhæl.əˈl(j)uː.jə/

• Audio (US)

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• Hyphenation: hal‧le‧lu‧jah

hallelujah

1. An exclamation used in songs of praise or thanksgiving to God.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 19:1, column 2:

     AND after theſe things I heard a great voyce of much people in heauen, ſaying, Alleluia: ſaluation, and glorie, and honour, and power vnto the Lord our God:

2. (by extension) A general expression of gratitude or adoration.

   Hallelujah! It’s finally the weekend!

• hallelujah lass

hallelujah (plural hallelujahs)

1. A shout of “Hallelujah”.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 633–634:

     So ſung they, and the Empyrean rung, / With Halleluiahs: Thus was Sabbath kept.

2. (music) A song of praise to God; a musical composition based on the word "Hallelujah".
3. (in the plural) General praise.
   • 1855, Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York, Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC, part II (Life as a Freeman), page 441:

     Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation’s jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs?

hallelujah (third-person singular simple present hallelujahs, present participle hallelujahing, simple past and past participle hallelujahed)

1. (intransitive) To cry "hallelujah" in praise.
   • 1971, Jack Kerouac, chapter 1, in Pic:

     My aunt Gastonia […] she'd seen the Lord more times than they could ever count, and hallelujahed and hallelujahed, said, “While's all this the Gospel word and true, […]