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• annunciation
  annunciation

  noun

  the announcement by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary of her conception of Christ.
• Annunciation
  Annunciation

  noun

  New Testament the announcement of the Incarnation by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:26–38)

annunciation

American  

[uh-nuhn-see-ey-shuhn] / əˌnʌn siˈeɪ ʃən /

noun

• annunciations
  plural

1. (often initial capital letter) the announcement by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary of her conception of Christ.

2. (initial capital letter) a representation of this in art.

3. Also called Lady Day.  (initial capital letter) the church festival on March 25 in memory of this.

4. an act or instance of announcing; proclamation.

   the annunciation of a new foreign policy.

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Annunciation British  

/ əˌnʌnsɪˈeɪʃən /

noun

1. New Testament the announcement of the Incarnation by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:26–38)

2. Also called: Annunciation Day.  the festival commemorating this, held on March 25 (Lady Day)

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Annunciation Cultural  

1. An announcement made by the angel Gabriel to Mary, the mother of Jesus, that she was going to bear a son, even though she was a virgin. Her son was to be called Jesus.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• annunciations
  plural

Etymology

Origin of annunciation

1350–1400; Middle English an ( n ) unciacio ( u ) n (< Anglo-French ) < Medieval Latin annūnciātiōn-, stem of annūnciātiō, for Late Latin adnūntiātiō; see annunciate, -ion

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

annunciation Annunciation annunciations

To MacFarlane, this image could be "an annunciation scene from Giotto".

From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2019

A vibraphone rhythm keeps calling out, a perpetual annunciation; the ensemble surges and recedes, again and again, moored to a mellow piano; a flute line soars, a kind of benediction.

From New York Times ● Jan. 29, 2018

Such a very public naming of the dead, an annunciation of our universal mortality, would be an act of revelation in the Anglo-Saxon world.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 9, 2017

The grand words of annunciation with which Kushner’s play culminates—“Greetings Prophet; / The Great Work begins: / The Messenger has arrived”—are delivered by the Angel with conversational mildness.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 26, 2015

Like an angel of the annunciation, Mother Ermentrude spreads her arms and folds her hands over my head.

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein

Mr. Talarico seems to find additional scriptural support, as Mr. Swaim mentions, in the idea that “God asks for Mary’s consent” at the Annunciation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026

At Annunciation House, El Paso’s primary migrant shelter, beds now hold detainees released from Camp East Montana.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 14, 2026

With better known themes, such as the Annunciation of the Virgin, thoughtful curation allows viewers to discern the subtle pictorial choices that Fra Angelico made.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 22, 2025

Another organization, the Catholic charity Annunciation House, provides shelter and hot meals to asylum-seekers who cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

From Salon ● Oct. 18, 2024

One particular subject which encouraged artists to explore the vanishing point was the Annunciation.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

The tradition’s canonical scenes — annunciations, resurrections, saintly transfigurations — are unavoidably miraculous, no matter how they’re rendered.

From New York Times ● Aug. 25, 2022

In Colvin she is made to deliver her labored annunciations in service of playing a working-class girl motivated to take down venal big-city bosses because they essentially ruined her father’s life.

From New York Times ● Feb. 6, 2011

It professes to bring annunciations from Heaven of man's immortality.'

From Zenobia or, the Fall of Palmyra by William Ware

These sections include the annunciations, the birth, infancy, and childhood of both John and Jesus.

From A Harmony of the Gospels for Students of the Life of Christ Based on the Broadus Harmony in the Revised Version by Archibald Thomas Robertson

Hardly a word was dishonourable to him except what turned on his prophetic annunciations.

From Romola by George Eliot