Demonstration

How to spell demonstration

13 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce demonstration

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does demonstration mean?

1. nounAn act of showing or proving something clearly, often by practical example.
2. nounA public gathering or march expressing a collective opinion or grievance.

Demonstration in a sentence

• The sales rep gave a live demonstration of the new software.

• Thousands joined the peaceful demonstration outside the parliament building.

• The chef's cooking demonstration drew a large crowd at the fair.

• Police closed the main road for the duration of the demonstration.

Where does demonstration come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin demonstratio, meaning 'a pointing out' or 'a showing', a noun built on the verb demonstrare, 'to show clearly' or 'to point out'. That verb combines the intensifying prefix de-, here meaning 'fully' or 'completely', with monstrare, 'to show', which itself comes from monstrum, originally a sign or omen sent by the gods. The same monstrare root quietly survives in everyday words like 'monster' (originally a divine warning) and 'muster' (to gather and show troops). English took the word in through Old French around the late 1300s, when it meant a logical proof or a clear showing of evidence; the sense of a public march or protest is a much later development of the nineteenth century. The spelling keeps the full Latin stem 'monstr' intact, which is a handy reminder that the tricky middle is m-o-n-s-t-r and not 'monster'.

How the word is built

• de- (fully)
• monstr (to show, from monstrare)
• -ation (noun of action)