ceremony

Plural

ceremonies

1. 1.A ritual, with religious or cultural significance.

   • Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.
   • In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep [the passover] in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it.

2. 2.An official gathering to celebrate, commemorate, or otherwise mark some event.

   • Promontory's "last spike" ceremony was so significant to the USA's history that it is still regularly re-enacted today, using replica locomotives that nose up to each other just as the originals did.

3. 3.A formal socially established behaviour, often in relation to people of different ranks; formality.

   • They went into the bars and interrupted the drinking, hustling the men out without ceremony.
   • Monsieur Bridet, notwithstanding his costume and his evident harrassment [sic], found in himself the presence of mind to remain the attentive manager, and with ceremony effected the proper introduction.

4. 4.Show of magnificence, display, ostentation.

   • It's time to perform the ceremony.

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