hosanna

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. interj. Used to express praise or adoration to God.
2. n. A cry of "hosanna.”
3. n. A shout of fervent and worshipful praise.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An exclamation praying God for deliverance, or an acclamation or ascription of praise to God. This exclamation originated from the Hebrew words rendered “Save now” in Ps. cxviii. 25, a psalm forming part of the Hallel used at the Passover. The form hosanna is recorded in Mat. xxi. 9, 15, and in the parallel passages (Mark xi. 9, 10; John xii. 13), as used by the multitude in acclamation to Christ entering Jerusalem in triumph on the Sunday before his crucifixion, with the additions “to the son of David” and “in the highest.” It has been in liturgical use from very early times. It appears in the Clementine Liturgy, in the response to the Sancta Sanctis, and in the liturgical directions of the book called The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. In both the Western and the principal Eastern liturgies it follows the Sanctus. The English Prayer-Book of 1549 retained the hosanna (osanna) in the first “hosanna in excelsis,” but altered the second to “Glory be to thee, O Lord, in the highest.” (See Luke xix. 38.) Later revisions omitted the first hosanna and changed ‘in the highest’ to ‘most High.’ See Benedictus.

Wiktionary

1. interj. A cry of praise or adoration to God in liturgical use among the Jews, and said to have been shouted in recognition of the Messiahship of Jesus on his entry into Jerusalem; hence since used in the Christian Church.
2. n. A cry of ‘hosanna’.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A Hebrew exclamation of praise to the Lord, or an invocation of blessings.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a cry of praise or adoration (to God)