hymn; song of praise; paean
A song or poem that praises someone or something. Can be used literally for religious hymns or figuratively for any work that glorifies its subject.
We sang a hymn at church.
This movie is a paean to youth.
This song is a paean to youth.
He wrote a poem dedicating a hymn to nature.
The spectators sang a hymn of victory.
賛美歌 refers specifically to Christian hymns sung in church, while 賛歌 is a broader term for any song of praise, religious or secular.
頌歌 is a more literary or classical word for an ode of praise, whereas 賛歌 is the everyday term used in modern writing and speech.
賛歌 (a hymn or song of praise) and 参加 (participation, joining in) are unrelated words that happen to share the same reading さんか.
Standard modern spelling; used in news and general writing.
Common variant using the older form of the kanji; still widely seen.
Archaic or traditional spelling; rarely used in modern Japanese.
From 賛 (san, 'praise') + 歌 (ka, 'song'). The kanji 讃 is an older form of 賛, and 讚 is a further traditional variant.