noun
-
a procession of people on horseback, in cars, etc
-
any procession
a cavalcade of guests
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cavalcade
1585–95; < Middle French < early Italian cavalcata horseback raid, equivalent to cavalc ( are ) to ride on horseback (< Late Latin caballicāre, equivalent to caball ( us ) horse ( see cavalier) + -icā- v. suffix + -re infinitive ending) + -ata -ade 1
Explanation
If you are traveling with a procession of people on horseback, you are part of a cavalcade. The word cavalcade comes from the Latin word for horse, caballus. The word cavalry, which means soldiers on horseback, comes from the same Latin root. So strictly speaking, a cavalcade is group of people on horseback or in horse-drawn carriages, moving together in some kind of ceremony or parade. But cavalcades can include vehicles or people walking, like the motorcycle cavalcades that sometimes accompany a funeral procession.
Vocabulary lists containing cavalcade
The Hobbit
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 9
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The 57 Bus
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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:
Yet the cavalcade of boldface names and industry players never ends.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026
Before rushing into action, or joining the cavalcade fretting about a market bubble, remember Thanksgiving.
From Barron's ● Dec. 17, 2025
"A cavalcade, volleys of cannons and a marble throne room," wrote the ultra pro-Kremlin news site Komsomolskaya Pravda on Friday.
From BBC ● Dec. 5, 2025
A cavalcade of guest stars have appeared on the show and several left the cast and producers — who are stars in their own right — in awe.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2025
Now he rode at the front of the cavalcade, with pale cheeks, and Wart wished there was something he could do to calm him down.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Creative solutions, such as staging socially distanced character meet-and-greets and replacing daytime parades with character cavalcades, turned the park into a greater place of theater.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2022
By the halfway point, it had blown my mind twice and accumulated such cavalcades of incident that I couldn’t fathom where it had left to go — but it found places, and it went there.
From New York Times ● Feb. 7, 2022
The devolution of SNL cold opens from laser-focused comedic premises like “Chevy Chase falls down” to loosely structured cavalcades of celebrity guest appearances continues apace.
From Slate ● Mar. 1, 2020
Crisp passing, alley-oop dunks, cavalcades of 3-pointers - what’s not to like?
From Washington Times ● Mar. 31, 2018
When one of these military or civic cavalcades is passing over the country, it scatters terror far and wide.
From Sketches of Reforms and Reformers, of Great Britain and Ireland by Henry B. Stanton
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
