noun
-
spectacular display or ceremony
-
archaic pageants collectively
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of pageantry
Explanation
Pageantry is the grandeur that turns an event into an elaborate spectacle. The long ritual of a new queen's coronation is a good example of pageantry. In contrast to the simplicity of a small wedding ceremony in a friend's back yard, a grand, expensive wedding might include such pageantry as a parade of bridesmaids in rainbow-colored gowns, followed by a mariachi band and the bride arriving on the back of an elephant. Pageantry comes from pageant, which today is a "showy spectacle or parade," but in Middle English meant "stage or scene of a play."
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 last of these, with its red-white-and-blue pageantry dripping with patriotic pride, seems to be of particular interest to the president.
From BBC • Jun. 1, 2026
On television, on one of the three channels then available to us, we watched the pageantry and the pomp.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 1, 2026
The jokes landed, the warm words resonated, the pageantry looked good on the evening news.
From BBC • Apr. 29, 2026
The cheers were muted as the State of the Union pageantry kicked off.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 25, 2026
If you have in your mind any image of Nazi pageantry and power, it likely comes, directly or indirectly, from Triumph of the Will.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
