- present participle of wed.
wedding
Americannoun
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the anniversary of a marriage, or its celebration.
They invited guests to their silver wedding.
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the act or an instance of blending or joining, especially opposite or contrasting elements.
a perfect wedding of conservatism and liberalism.
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Business Slang. a merger.
adjective
noun
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the act of marrying or the celebration of a marriage
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( as modifier )
wedding day
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the anniversary of a marriage (in such combinations as silver wedding or diamond wedding )
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the combination or blending of two separate elements
Synonym Usage
See marriage.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of wedding
First recorded before 900; Middle English “matrimony, wedlock, marriage,” Old English weddung “betrothal”; see origin at wed, -ing 1
Explanation
A wedding is a celebration or ceremony of marriage. Besides being a formal way to mark the union of two people, weddings can be a lot of fun too. The earliest meaning of wedding was simply "the state of being married," but by the early 1400s it meant the ceremony or rite at the very beginning of a marriage. A wedding can be a simple civil ceremony at City Hall or an elaborate event that takes place over several days and involves religious rituals, food and drink, and hundreds of guests. As an adjective, wedding describes anything related to the ceremony, like wedding cakes and wedding dresses.
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.
There were some bridal-adjacent looks on display, but whether they hold any resemblance to Swift's yet-to-be-seen wedding dress remain to be revealed.
From BBC • Jul. 9, 2026
Jen Schultz of Norwalk invited Mickey the Moose to her May wedding after seeing TikTokers invite A-listers to their events.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 9, 2026
The wedding, this theory goes, was payback for 20 years’ worth of media that characterized her as desperate and lovelorn and having only herself to blame for boyfriends who wilted under the media’s gaze.
From Salon • Jul. 9, 2026
More than a dozen familiar faces pop up; one big star appears among the guests at a wedding and doesn’t even say anything, yet gets a laugh anyway for sheer randomness.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 9, 2026
Chicken stared at the photos, finally placing his fingers on one of Daddy grinning at Mom on their wedding day.
From "Caterpillar Summer" by Gillian McDunn
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.
