Ceremony

How to spell ceremony

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce ceremony

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ceremony mean?

1. nounA formal occasion or set of acts performed to mark an important event or follow a tradition.

Ceremony in a sentence

• The wedding ceremony began promptly at noon in the garden.

• Graduates lined up outside the hall before the award ceremony.

Where does ceremony come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin caerimonia, which meant 'sacredness', 'reverence', or a 'religious observance' performed with due solemnity. The exact origins of caerimonia are debated, though some scholars have linked it to the Etruscan town of Caere, where certain Roman sacred rites were said to have been preserved during a crisis. English took the word in the late 1300s by way of Old French ceremonie, and it first carried a strongly religious sense before broadening to cover any formal public occasion such as a wedding, graduation, or coronation. The original solemn flavour survives in the phrase 'to stand on ceremony', meaning to insist on strict formality. The spelling keeps the soft c followed by an e, then the unstressed -mony ending, which is the part writers most often second-guess.

How the word is built

• ceremon- (from Latin caerimonia: sacred rite)
• -y (noun suffix)