Search Result for "jubilee": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. a special anniversary (or the celebration of it);


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Jubilee \Ju"bi*lee\, n. [F. jubil['e], L. jubilaeus, Gr. ?, fr. Heb. y[=o]bel the blast of a trumpet, also the grand sabbatical year, which was announced by sound of trumpet.] [1913 Webster] 1. (Jewish Hist.) Every fiftieth year, being the year following the completion of each seventh sabbath of years, at which time all the slaves of Hebrew blood were liberated, and all lands which had been alienated during the whole period reverted to their former owners. [In this sense spelled also, in some English Bibles, jubile.] --Lev. xxv. 8-17. [1913 Webster] 2. The joyful commemoration held on the fiftieth anniversary of any event; as, the jubilee of Queen Victoria's reign; the jubilee of the American Board of Missions. [1913 Webster] 3. (R. C. Ch.) A church solemnity or ceremony celebrated at Rome, at stated intervals, originally of one hundred years, but latterly of twenty-five; a plenary and extraordinary indulgence granted by the sovereign pontiff to the universal church. One invariable condition of granting this indulgence is the confession of sins and receiving of the eucharist. [1913 Webster] 4. A season of general joy. [1913 Webster] The town was all a jubilee of feasts. --Dryden. [1913 Webster] 5. A state of joy or exultation. [R.] "In the jubilee of his spirits." --Sir W. Scott. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

jubilee n 1: a special anniversary (or the celebration of it)
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

73 Moby Thesaurus words for "jubilee": anniversaries, anniversary, annual holiday, bicentenary, bicentennial, biennial, birthday, bissextile day, celebrating, celebration, centenary, centennial, ceremony, commemoration, decennial, diamond jubilee, dressing ship, elation, exultation, fanfare, fanfaronade, festivity, flourish of trumpets, golden wedding anniversary, holiday, holy days, hoopla, immovable feast, jubilance, jubilation, leap year, marking the occasion, memorialization, memory, merriment, name day, natal day, observance, octennial, ovation, quadrennial, quasquicentennial, quincentenary, quincentennial, quinquennial, raucous happiness, rejoicing, religious rites, remembrance, revel, rite, ritual observance, salute, salvo, septennial, sesquicentennial, sextennial, show of joy, silver wedding anniversary, solemn observance, solemnization, tercentenary, tercentennial, testimonial, testimonial banquet, testimonial dinner, toast, tribute, tricennial, triennial, triumph, wedding anniversary, whoopee
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Jubilee a joyful shout or clangour of trumpets, the name of the great semi-centennial festival of the Hebrews. It lasted for a year. During this year the land was to be fallow, and the Israelites were only permitted to gather the spontaneous produce of the fields (Lev. 25:11, 12). All landed property during that year reverted to its original owner (13-34; 27:16-24), and all who were slaves were set free (25:39-54), and all debts were remitted. The return of the jubilee year was proclaimed by a blast of trumpets which sounded throughout the land. There is no record in Scripture of the actual observance of this festival, but there are numerous allusions (Isa. 5:7, 8, 9, 10; 61:1, 2; Ezek. 7:12, 13; Neh. 5:1-19; 2 Chr. 36:21) which place it beyond a doubt that it was observed. The advantages of this institution were manifold. "1. It would prevent the accumulation of land on the part of a few to the detriment of the community at large. 2. It would render it impossible for any one to be born to absolute poverty, since every one had his hereditary land. 3. It would preclude those inequalities which are produced by extremes of riches and poverty, and which make one man domineer over another. 4. It would utterly do away with slavery. 5. It would afford a fresh opportunity to those who were reduced by adverse circumstances to begin again their career of industry in the patrimony which they had temporarily forfeited. 6. It would periodically rectify the disorders which crept into the state in the course of time, preclude the division of the people into nobles and plebeians, and preserve the theocracy inviolate."