Coronation

How to spell coronation

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce coronation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does coronation mean?

1. nounThe formal ceremony at which a monarch is crowned and invested with sovereign authority.

Coronation in a sentence

• The coronation took place in the abbey before thousands of guests.

• Historians studied the cost of the lavish coronation in great detail.

Where does coronation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin corona, meaning 'crown' or 'garland', which itself was borrowed from the Greek korone, a term for something curved or hooked, such as a wreath bent into a circle. From corona the Romans formed the verb coronare, 'to crown' or 'to wreathe with a garland', and the medieval Latin noun coronatio described the act of crowning a ruler. English took the word in through Old French coronacion during the 1300s, applying it to the formal ceremony in which a monarch is invested with a crown. The same corona root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'crown', 'coronet', and even the 'corona' of the sun, all sharing the idea of a ring or circlet. Because the word keeps a single 'r' and a single 'n', writers who pad it with doubled letters are working against its tidy Latin spelling.

How the word is built

• coron- (from Latin corona: crown, garland)
• -ation (noun of action)