pageant
Americannoun
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pageants
plural
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an elaborate public spectacle illustrative of the history of a place, institution, or the like, often given in dramatic form or as a procession of colorful floats.
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a costumed procession, masque, allegorical tableau, or the like forming part of public or social festivities.
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a show or exhibition, especially one consisting of a succession of participants or events.
a beauty pageant.
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something comparable to a procession in colorful variety, splendor, or grandeur.
the pageant of Renaissance history.
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a pretentious display or show that conceals a lack of real importance or meaning.
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(in medieval times) a platform or stage, usually moving on wheels, on which scenes from mystery plays were presented.
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display or pageantry.
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Obsolete. a stage bearing any kind of spectacle.
noun
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an elaborate colourful parade or display portraying scenes from history, esp one involving rich costume
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any magnificent or showy display, procession, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of pageant
1350–1400; Middle English pagyn, pagaunt, pagand < Anglo-Latin pāgina a stage for plays, scene, platform, perhaps special use of Latin pāgina page 1
Explanation
A pageant is an elaborate show or parade that usually depicts a historical or religious event, although these days more people know them as Miss America-type beauty contests. Pageants aren't just for beauty queens — any richly decorated spectacle or ceremony could be considered a pageant. Around Christmas time, many Christian churches put on pageants that reenact the birth of Jesus. The Carnival parades in Brazil represent another type of pageant. And if your school organized a show where students had to act out famous moments in history? That would be a pageant, too.
Vocabulary lists containing pageant
List 9
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Stella by Starlight
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Turtles All the Way Down
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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:
Thom Brodeur, a former GoDaddy marketer, promised to turn competitors of Miss USA into modern “commerce queens” when he bought the 75-year-old pageant last year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
He said he’d use those same sales skills to try to lure back pageant audiences.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Last year, a beauty pageant contestant was commended for standing up to a group of men who tried to bully her and other contestants over the skirts and western dresses they were wearing.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
The start rate for parade and pageant helpers is $26 an hour, while the start rate for stage scheduling assistants is $28.25 an hour, according to the union.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
It’s bad enough he doesn’t know I’m in the pageant.
From "Like Vanessa" by Tami Charles
He grew up watching pageants on TV with his single mother in Ohio and found the Cinderella stories intriguing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Founded in the Bay Area in 1965, the organization hosts drag pageants to raise funds for the LGBTQ+ community, namely to help those contending with HIV/AIDS and homelessness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026
The shorts often satirize Christmas traditions such as gift-giving and pageants.
From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2025
Wednesday's news conference was staged at The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater, a venue that hosted Frank Sinatra at his crooning peak and Miss Universe pageants during Miami Beach's mid-century boom.
From BBC ● Dec. 17, 2025
This is a time of festivals and carnivals, of extraordinary theatrical pageants.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
Definitions 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.
