CEREMONY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ceremony mean? 

• CEREMONY (noun)
  The noun CEREMONY has 3 senses:

1. a formal event performed on a special occasion

2. any activity that is performed in an especially solemn elaborate or formal way

3. the proper or conventional behavior on some solemn occasion

  Familiarity information: CEREMONY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CEREMONY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A formal event performed on a special occasion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

ceremonial; ceremonial occasion; ceremony; observance

Context example:

a ceremony commemorating Pearl Harbor

Hypernyms ("ceremony" is a kind of...):

affair; function; occasion; social function; social occasion (a vaguely specified social event)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ceremony"):

potlatch (a ceremonial feast held by some Indians of the northwestern coast of North America (as in celebrating a marriage or a new accession) in which the host gives gifts to tribesmen and others to display his superior wealth (sometimes, formerly, to his own impoverishment))

Maundy (a public ceremony on Maundy Thursday when the monarch distributes Maundy money)

formalities; formality (a requirement of etiquette or custom)

fire walking (the ceremony of walking barefoot over hot stones or a bed of embers)

exercise ((usually plural) a ceremony that involves processions and speeches)

induction; initiation; installation (a formal entry into an organization or position or office)

military ceremony (a formal ceremony performed by military personnel)

commemoration; memorialisation; memorialization (a ceremony to honor the memory of someone or something)

opening (a ceremony accompanying the start of some enterprise)

dedication (a ceremony in which something (as a building) is dedicated to some goal or purpose)

pageant; pageantry (a rich and spectacular ceremony)

hymeneals; nuptials; wedding; wedding ceremony (the social event at which the ceremony of marriage is performed)

funeral; obsequy (a ceremony at which a dead person is buried or cremated)

circumstance (formal ceremony about important occasions)

Derivation:

ceremonial (marked by pomp or ceremony or formality)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any activity that is performed in an especially solemn elaborate or formal way

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

he disposed of it without ceremony

Hypernyms ("ceremony" is a kind of...):

activity (any specific behavior)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ceremony"):

chanoyu; tea ceremony (an ancient ritual for preparing and serving and drinking tea)

Derivation:

ceremonial (marked by pomp or ceremony or formality)

ceremonious (rigidly formal or bound by convention)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The proper or conventional behavior on some solemn occasion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

an inaugural ceremony

Hypernyms ("ceremony" is a kind of...):

activity (any specific behavior)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ceremony"):

groundbreaking; groundbreaking ceremony (the ceremonial breaking of the ground to formally begin a construction project)

purgation; purification (a ceremonial cleansing from defilement or uncleanness by the performance of appropriate rites)

lustrum (a ceremonial purification of the Roman population every five years following the census)

religious ceremony; religious ritual (a ceremony having religious meaning)

military ceremony (a military custom performed in observance of some event or anniversary)

presentation (the activity of formally presenting something (as a prize or reward))

Derivation:

ceremonial (marked by pomp or ceremony or formality)

ceremonious (rigidly formal or bound by convention)

 Context examples 

As Christmas approached, the usual mysteries began to haunt the house, and Jo frequently convulsed the family by proposing utterly impossible or magnificently absurd ceremonies, in honor of this unusually merry Christmas.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The tall young newcomer was forcing his way through, shouldering men right and left without ceremony or gentleness.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Peggotty was resolved that it should be quietly done; and the clerk had given her away, and there had been no witnesses of the ceremony.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

They have a sort of clear parade-ground on the top, and they make a proper ceremony about it.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Unmarried to him, this would never grieve me; but can I let him complete his calculations—coolly put into practice his plans—go through the wedding ceremony?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The visit of ceremony was paid and returned; and Louisa Musgrove was mentioned, and Captain Benwick, too, without even half a smile.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Before we took shipping, I was often asked by some of the crew, whether I had performed the ceremony above mentioned?

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

But the wolf found them all, and used no great ceremony; one after the other he swallowed them down his throat.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

It was not a time to stand upon ceremony.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The drylands are also used for tourism and for spiritual or cultural ceremonies.

(Land cover change in Botswana savannas: Don't blame the elephants, National Science Foundation)