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Wiktionary

ceremony

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English cerymonye, from Latin caerimonia or caeremonia, later often cerimonia (“sacredness, reverence, a sacred rite”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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ceremony (countable and uncountable, plural ceremonies)

  1. A ritual, with religious or cultural significance.
  2. An official gathering to celebrate, commemorate, or otherwise mark some event.
    a graduation ceremony, an opening ceremony
  3. (uncountable) A formal socially established behaviour, often in relation to people of different ranks; formality.
    • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:
      […] to feed were best at home;
      From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;
      Meeting were bare without it.
    • 1928, W. Somerset Maugham, “Miss King”, in Ashenden‎[1], New York: Avon, published 1943, page 37:
      Monsieur Bridet, notwithstanding his costume and his evident harrassment [sic], found in himself the presence of mind to remain the attentive manager, and with ceremony effected the proper introduction.
    • 1959, C. S. Forester, Hunting the Bismarck‎[2], London: Michael Joseph:
      They went into the bars and interrupted the drinking, hustling the men out without ceremony.
  4. (uncountable) Show of magnificence, display, ostentation.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 752-756:
      Meanwhile the winged Heralds, by command
      Of sovereign power, with awful ceremony
      And trumpet’s sound, throughout the host proclaim
      A solemn council forthwith to be held
      At Pandemonium […]
    • 1829, Washington Irving, chapter 46, in A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada‎[3], volume II, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, page 254:
      Immediately after her arrival, the queen rode forth to survey the camp and its environs: wherever she went, she was attended by a splendid retinue; and all the commanders vied with each other, in the pomp and ceremony with which they received her.
  5. (obsolete) An accessory or object associated with a ritual.
    • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
      […] his ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man […]
    • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
      […] Well, believe this,
      No ceremony that to great ones ’longs,
      Not the king’s crown, nor the deputed sword,
      The marshal’s truncheon, nor the judge’s robe,
      Become them with one half so good a grace
      As mercy does.
  6. (obsolete) An omen or portent.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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Middle English

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Noun

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ceremony

  1. Alternative form of cerymonye
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