fanfare
Americannoun
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fanfares
plural
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a flourish or short air played on trumpets or the like.
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an ostentatious display or flourish.
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publicity or advertising.
noun
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a flourish or short tune played on brass instruments, used as a military signal, at a ceremonial event, etc
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an ostentatious flourish or display
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fanfare
1760–70; < French, expressive word akin to fanfaron fanfaron.
Explanation
Fanfare is a loud, proud burst of something to get attention. If you open up a carpet store with one of those sky-sweeping lights, lots of balloons, and a brass band, you’re doing it with great fanfare. Originally fanfare meant a short burst of music played by trumpeters, usually when someone important entered a room. But these days we describe anything as fanfare that has the same feeling as a burst of trumpets. If you’re a TV executive with a new show you think is going to be a big hit, roll it out with fanfare–—ad campaigns, billboards, celebrity parties!
Vocabulary lists containing fanfare
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"Among Quebecers there is a rare way of helping: discreet, sincere, without fanfare," he wrote in October 2025.
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
No online orders, and no fanfare or publicity.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
Expect lots of fanfare over the sale, for the first time in the UK, of plug-in solar panels.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Yet Sondheimer has endured all of this without fanfare, without a regular TV appearance, without a radio gig, without a regular podcast, without any of the trappings of today’s media stars.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026
Even after a trumpeter appeared on a tiny balcony at the peak of the playhouse and blew a fanfare, the babble scarcely diminished.
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
The fanfares are curated by Grammy nominee and singer Seth MacFarlane, best known as the creator and star of “Family Guy.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
Some blocos are powered by behemoth sound trucks known as electric trios, others by small fanfares.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 12, 2024
But all the fancy regal fanfares in the world on Tuesday might be drowned out by bigger realities.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2023
But under Mälkki’s baton, and with this orchestra — Sibelius’s sound world etched in its bones — “Finlandia” was newly disarming, modestly dignified in its touching harmonies and iron-willed fanfares.
From New York Times ● May 10, 2023
Horns blew fanfares as Lionstar and Lady Lyanna pushed out from shore, moving downriver to clear the way for Seaswift.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
