fanfare
Americannoun
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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
-
an ostentatious flourish or display
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
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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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.
The Citroen 2CV, or "two horses" was first unveiled with fanfare on October 7, 1948 at the Paris auto salon.
From Barron's • May 21, 2026
Burnham and Streeting have, with huge fanfare, made their decisions.
From BBC • May 16, 2026
The Roundhill Memory ETF, a fund launched with little fanfare and no major seed investors last month, has soared to more than $9 billion in assets in just over six weeks.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 14, 2026
Judicial elections are usually sleepy affairs, subject to little political fanfare or interest.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2026
The first is the genome of the DNA in chromosomes, the genome of the famous human genome project, which proclaimed its success with great fanfare in 2000.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
