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pageant

[ paj-uh nt ]
/ ˈpædʒ ənt /
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noun

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RELATED WORDS

parade, fair, ritual, procession, tableau, extravaganza, celebration, pomp, show, exposition, exhibition, motorcade, make-believe, charade, display

Nearby words

  1. page, thomas nelson,
  2. page, walter hines,
  3. page-jack,
  4. page-three,
  5. page-turner,
  6. pageantic,
  7. pageantry,
  8. pageboy,
  9. pager,
  10. paget

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 page1
Related formspag·eant·eer, nounpa·gean·tic [puh-jan-tik] /pəˈdʒæn tɪk/, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for pageant

British Dictionary definitions for pageant

pageant

/ (ˈpædʒənt) /

noun

an elaborate colourful parade or display portraying scenes from history, esp one involving rich costume
any magnificent or showy display, procession, etc

Word Origin for pageant

C14: from Medieval Latin pāgina scene of a play, from Latin: page 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for pageant

pageant

n.

late 14c., "play in a cycle of mystery plays," from Medieval Latin pagina, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Latin pagina "page of a book" (see page (n.1)) on notion of "manuscript" of a play.

But an early sense in Middle English also was "stage or scene of a play" (late 14c.) and Klein says a sense of Latin pagina was "movable scaffold" (probably from the etymological sense of "stake"). With excrescent -t as in ancient (adj.). Generalized sense of "showy parade, spectacle" is first attested 1805, though this notion is found in pageantry (1650s).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper