noun
-
spectacular display or ceremony
-
archaic pageants collectively
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.
US President Donald Trump descended the steps of Air Force One in Beijing on Wednesday evening, greeted with pomp and pageantry ahead of a high-stakes meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
From BBC • May 13, 2026
“Stamptown” at the Montalbán was filmed as part of a Netflix special that will air later this year, which any lover of brain rot and pageantry should be sure to check out.
From Los Angeles Times • May 13, 2026
The season will conclude on 12 September with the traditional pageantry of the Last Night.
From BBC • Apr. 20, 2026
The answers, though, seem largely incidental beside the pageantry of haute cuisine and burbling table talk.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026
I never get tired of this—of the spectacle, of the pageantry.
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
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.
