ceremony
noun
Simple meaning
A formal socially established behaviour, often about people of different ranks.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sehruhmohneeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɛɹəmoʊni
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An official gathering to celebrate, commemorate, or otherwise mark some event.
A ritual, with religious or cultural significance.
uncountable
A formal socially established behaviour, often in relation to people of different ranks; formality.
uncountable
Show of magnificence, display, ostentation.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A formal socially established behaviour, often in relation to people of different ranks; formality.
Used this way, ceremony is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use ceremony
- “The ceremony of smelling the cork and tasting the wine.”noun
- “A ceremony commemorating Pearl Harbor.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A formal event performed on a special occasion.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An academic exercise in which diplomas are conferred.
The ceremonial breaking of the ground to formally begin a construction project.
The act of marrying.
A formal ceremony performed by military personnel.
A ceremony having religious meaning.
An ancient ritual for preparing and serving and drinking tea.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- celebrationnoun
- attendancenoun
- anniversarynoun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.