ceremony

English

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ceremony

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• cæremony, cærimony (both archaic)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛɹ.ɪ.mə.ni/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛɹ.əˌmoʊ.ni/

  • Audio (US)

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  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• (Philippine, nonstandard) IPA^(key): /sɛɹˈɛ.mə.ni/
• Hyphenation: cer‧e‧mo‧ny

Noun

ceremony (countable and uncountable, plural ceremonies)

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.

   • 1881, Henry James, Jr., chapter 1, in The Portrait of a Lady, New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company , →OCLC, page 1:

     Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.

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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     […] 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, 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, 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], , →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, 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, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     […] 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     […] 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.
   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     For he is superstitious grown of late,
     Quite from the main opinion he held once
     Of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies.

   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,
     Yet now they fright me.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• “ceremony”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “ceremony”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “ceremony”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “ceremony”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Middle English

Noun

ceremony

1. Alternative form of cerymonye