ceremony - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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

ceremony (countable and uncountable, plural ceremonies or (Early Modern) ceremonys)

  1. A ritual, with religious or cultural significance.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, pages 463-464:
      To whom the Priest with naked armes full net
      Approching nigh, and murdrous knife well whet,
      Gan mutter close a certaine secret charme,
      With other diuelish ceremonies met:
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 9:3:
      In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep [the passover] in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it.
    • 2024 March 17, “Government Unanimously Approves National Remembrance Day for October 7 Disaster and the Swords of Iron War”, in gov.il‎[1], archived from the original on 4 December 2025:
      This year, due to the fact that the 24th of the Hebrew month of Tishrei falls on Shabbat, the ceremonies will be held on Sunday, the 25th of Tishrei, as they will be every year when the 24th of Tishrei falls on Shabbat.
  2. An official gathering to celebrate, commemorate, or otherwise mark some event.
    • 2025 November 12, Tony Streeter, “All around the world”, in RAIL, number 1048, page 42:
      Promontory's "last spike" ceremony was so significant to the USA's history that it is still regularly re-enacted today, using replica locomotives that nose up to each other just as the originals did.
  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[2], 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.
  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[4], 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.
  6. (obsolete) An omen or portent.

ritual with religious significance

official gathering to celebrate

ceremony

  1. alternative form of cerymonye