Antonyms for pageant


Grammar : Noun
Spell : paj-uh nt
Phonetic Transcription : ˈpædʒ ənt


Definition of pageant

Origin :
  • late 14c., "play in a cycle of mystery plays," from Medieval Latin pagina, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Latin pagina "page of a book" (see page (n.1)) on notion of "manuscript" of a play.
  • But an early sense in Middle English also was "stage or scene of a play" (late 14c.) and Klein says a sense of Latin pagina was "movable scaffold" (probably from the etymological sense of "stake"). With excrescent -t as in ancient (adj.). Generalized sense of "showy parade, spectacle" is first attested 1805, though this notion is found in pageantry (1650s).
  • noun spectacle or contest
Example sentences :
  • As for to-day, the magnificence of the pageant beggars description.
  • Extract from : « Ireland as It Is » by Robert John Buckley (AKA R.J.B.)
  • His own inner life was as vivid a pageant to him as the history of the Church.
  • Extract from : « Browning's England » by Helen Archibald Clarke
  • And this real—not a pageant—not as that thing you made of me before?
  • Extract from : « Roland Cashel » by Charles James Lever
  • Let us watch the pageant that crosses the bridge that Charles built.
  • Extract from : « From a Terrace in Prague » by Lieut.-Col. B. Granville Baker
  • Thursday, the twenty-first of January, 1535, was chosen for the pageant.
  • Extract from : « The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 (of 2) » by Henry Martyn Baird
  • "Never mind: make a Pageant of 'em," said his brother grimly.
  • Extract from : « Brother Copas » by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
  • This was the pageant of her beloved England, and hers for the moment was this proud part in it.
  • Extract from : « Brother Copas » by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
  • It's to be an Anglo-American pageant, to symbolize the school.
  • Extract from : « The Jolliest School of All » by Angela Brazil
  • The people watched this pageant as they had done the earlier spectacles.
  • Extract from : « "Unto Caesar" » by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
  • The pageant had been brilliant, as one may read in the chronicles of the time.
  • Extract from : « The Royal Pawn of Venice » by Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull

Synonyms for pageant

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019