panoply

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek πανοπλία (panoplía, “suit of armour”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpænəpli/

• Audio (US)

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Noun

panoply (plural panoplies)

1. A splendid display of something.
   • 1961, J. A. Philip, “Mimesis in the Sophistês of Plato,”, in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, volume 92, page 459:

     Even though we cannot affirm that the products of mimesis are invested in the panoply of existence.

   • 2011, The Decemberists (lyrics and music), “June Hymn”, in The King Is Dead:

     And you were waking / And day was breaking / A panoply of song / And summer comes to Springville Hill

2. (by extension, historical) A collection or display of weaponry.
3. Ceremonial garments, complete with all accessories.
4. (historical) A complete set of armour.
5. (by extension) Something that covers and protects.
   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number):

     [I]n short, sneering and fleering at him in her cold barren way; all which, however, he, the man he was, could receive on thick enough panoply, or even rebound therefrom, and also go his way.

6. (by extension) A broad or full range or complete set.
   • 2016 November, Eugene Rogan, “The First World War and its Legacy in the Middle East”, in Amal Ghazal, Jens Hanssen, editors, The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Middle-Eastern and North African History, →DOI:

     Indeed, for much of the Arab world, the Turkish term Seferberlik, which originally referred to conscription, has come to represent the panoply of civilian suffering in the Great War.

Derived terms

• empanoply
• panoplied

Related terms

• hoplite

Translations

Verb

panoply (third-person singular simple present panoplies, present participle panoplying, simple past and past participle panoplied)

1. To fit out in a suit of armour
2. To array or bedeck