ceremony.

1. An event or prescribed set of actions marking an occasion with ritual or formality.

2. Elaborate politeness or prescribed formality in behavior.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• opening ceremony
• formal ceremony

On the page

The ceremony ended before the storm arrived.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Countable or uncountable by context; countable singular ceremony; plural ceremonies. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.