Exhibition

How to spell exhibition

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce exhibition

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does exhibition mean?

1. nounA public display of works of art, objects, or other items gathered for people to view.
2. nounAn act of showing a particular skill, quality, or feeling, often openly or strikingly.

Exhibition in a sentence

• The gallery is hosting an exhibition of contemporary photography this month.

• The goalkeeper gave a remarkable exhibition of skill in the final minutes.

• Tickets for the dinosaur exhibition sold out within an hour.

• His outburst at the meeting was an embarrassing exhibition of temper.

Where does exhibition come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb exhibere, meaning 'to hold out, present, or show', which was built from ex- ('out') and habere ('to have or hold'). The literal sense was of holding something out so that others could see it, and from that came the idea of putting things on public view. The noun form exhibitio described an act of presenting or producing something, and English adopted the word through Old French exhibicion in the late 1300s. Notice that the spelling preserves the original Latin habere root, which is why the silent letters 'xh' sit together; many writers want to drop the 'h' because they cannot hear it. The same habere root survives in relatives such as 'inhibit' and 'prohibit', all of which share that quiet, easily forgotten 'h'.

How the word is built

• ex- (out)
• -hibit- (from Latin habere: to hold, have)
• -ion (noun suffix)