- present participle of wed.
wedding
Americannoun
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weddings
plural
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the anniversary of a marriage, or its celebration.
They invited guests to their silver wedding.
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the act or an instance of blending or joining, especially opposite or contrasting elements.
a perfect wedding of conservatism and liberalism.
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Business Slang. a merger.
adjective
noun
-
-
the act of marrying or the celebration of a marriage
-
( as modifier )
wedding day
-
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the anniversary of a marriage (in such combinations as silver wedding or diamond wedding )
-
the combination or blending of two separate elements
Synonym Usage
See marriage.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of wedding
First recorded before 900; Middle English “matrimony, wedlock, marriage,” Old English weddung “betrothal”; see origin at wed, -ing 1
Explanation
A wedding is a celebration or ceremony of marriage. Besides being a formal way to mark the union of two people, weddings can be a lot of fun too. The earliest meaning of wedding was simply "the state of being married," but by the early 1400s it meant the ceremony or rite at the very beginning of a marriage. A wedding can be a simple civil ceremony at City Hall or an elaborate event that takes place over several days and involves religious rituals, food and drink, and hundreds of guests. As an adjective, wedding describes anything related to the ceremony, like wedding cakes and wedding dresses.
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:
Now, fresh off their wedding, Carrey is making another major life change by putting his lavish Maui estate on the market.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
Maguire can be seen pronouncing Ogunlesi and jewelry designer Meyer, 49, husband and wife as the newlyweds share a kiss in a photo from the luxury golf course wedding.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026
"We're going to enjoy it as much as we can, even if it's just for today," said Edna Morales, 41, who arrived Friday from northern Mexico with her husband to celebrate their wedding anniversary.
From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2026
"Before I got married to Mick - we'd already been together seven years, had two children - I put on a wedding dress every day until he agreed that we get married," she revealed.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
Before returning to Virginia, Martha Washington made it known that Ona would be presented as a wedding gift to her granddaughter Eliza.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
Through the then-recently established Bradford Heritage Recording Unit, he began photographing the city's South Asian communities at work, at religious gatherings, at weddings and in their social lives.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
Lara Jesani, a lawyer who has helped interfaith couples obtain court protection, said details of planned weddings have sometimes reached relatives and Hindu nationalist groups opposed to them within that notice period.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
By upgrading marriage registries with chandeliers, flower arches and poetry, local Chinese officials are glamorizing city hall weddings in hopes of encouraging young couples to marry and boost the nation’s declining birthrate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
It is a season in which a lot of energy is flowing out: two family weddings back-to-back, seven family birthdays between August and November, the usual work, a cookbook project, a documentary.
From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2026
People from faraway villages would line up at our home, asking for lucky dates for weddings and predictions for their children.
From "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" by Grace Lin
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.
