Word
bless
US/ˈbɫɛs/
UK/blˈɛs/
Irregular verb
Forms
Infinitive
bless
Past
blest
Past participle
blest
Definitions
01religious sanctification
B1 · Intermediate Religion
v. to make something holy or ask for God's protection and help.
v. to consecrate or make holy by religious rite; to invoke divine favour upon a person or object.
“The priest will bless the new house and the family living there.”
“During the ceremony, the bishop will bless the congregation, invoking peace and prosperity for the coming year.”
Synonyms
02to approve or support
B2 · Upper Intermediate
v. to give your official approval or support to a plan or idea.
v. to grant approval, assent, or support to a proposal or undertaking.
“The manager decided to bless the project after seeing the final budget.”
“The board of directors finally chose to bless the merger, provided that the current management team remained in place for the transition.”
03programming
C1 · Advanced Computing Technical
v. to turn a piece of data into a specific type of object in certain computer languages.
v. to associate a reference with a specific package or class, effectively turning it into an object. Transitive; specific to the Perl programming language.
“In Perl, you use the bless function to create an object from a reference.”
“The constructor method must explicitly bless the hash reference into the class to enable method inheritance.”
Usage
The verb takes a reference as its primary object and an optional package name as the second argument.
Synonyms
04expression of endearment
B1 · Intermediate British English · Informal
interj. a word you say when someone does something sweet, kind, or slightly silly.
interj. an exclamation used to express endearment, gratitude, or occasionally patronising sympathy.
“He brought me a cup of tea without being asked—bless him.”
“She spent all afternoon baking these cookies for the charity sale, bless her heart.”
Teaching tip
Often used as 'Bless you' or 'Bless her'. Be aware that it can sound slightly condescending depending on the speaker's tone.
Collocations
Common phrases and expressions where native English speakers use the word “bless” in context.
Verb
01. bless and sanctify
“The priest was asked to bless and sanctify the new chapel before the first service.”
verb + and + verb
02. bless with talent
“She was blessed with talent from a young age, excelling in both music and art.”
verb + prep + noun
03. solemnly bless
“The bishop arrived to solemnly bless the congregation during the ceremony.”
adv + verb
Preposition
04. bless in disguise
“Losing that job turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it led to a better career.”
prep + noun
Adverb
05. abundantly bless
“They felt abundantly blessed to have all their children home for the holidays.”
adv + verb
06. richly bless
“The community has been richly blessed by the generous donations of local businesses.”
adv + verb
Real-World Examples
“The women sang with her, prayed for her and asked God to bless her with another child.” “He was only like 11, bless him, and I crushed his head with my boot, which was actually me stamping on a cauliflower.” Etymology
From Middle English blessen, from Old English bletsian (“to consecrate (with blood)”), from Proto-West Germanic blōdisōn (“to sprinkle, mark or hallow with blood”), from Proto-Germanic blōþą (“blood”), of uncertain origin, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“to bloom”). Cognate with Old Norse bleza (“to bless”) (whence Icelandic blessa), Old English blēdan (“to bleed”). More at bleed.
An ellipsis for an expression such as bless your heart.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Word family
VERB
NOUN
Related words
Idioms
Domain
- Exam level
- CambridgeCambridgeCambridge English QualificationsThe exam suite from Cambridge University Press & Assessment, from A1 Movers up to C2 Proficiency. The benchmark names double as CEFR labels.C1 AdvancedIELTSIELTSInternational English Language Testing SystemThe 0–9 band test co-owned by the British Council, IDP, and Cambridge. Used for university entry, work, and migration.7.0–8.0TOEFL iBTTOEFL iBTTest of English as a Foreign Language, Internet-Based TestETS's academic English test, the standard route for US university admissions. Scored 0–120, with a 1–6 scale since 2026.1–6 scale: 5.0–5.595–113TOEICTOEICTest of English for International CommunicationETS's workplace English test, big in Japan and Korea. Listening & Reading scores 10–990 and tops out at C1.945–990
- Frequency
- Common
- Level
- C1 · AdvancedOxford
- Updated
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