fanfare
Americannoun
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a flourish or short air played on trumpets or the like.
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an ostentatious display or flourish.
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publicity or advertising.
noun
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a flourish or short tune played on brass instruments, used as a military signal, at a ceremonial event, etc
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an ostentatious flourish or display
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fanfare
1760–70; < French, expressive word akin to fanfaron fanfaron.
Explanation
Fanfare is a loud, proud burst of something to get attention. If you open up a carpet store with one of those sky-sweeping lights, lots of balloons, and a brass band, you’re doing it with great fanfare. Originally fanfare meant a short burst of music played by trumpeters, usually when someone important entered a room. But these days we describe anything as fanfare that has the same feeling as a burst of trumpets. If you’re a TV executive with a new show you think is going to be a big hit, roll it out with fanfare–—ad campaigns, billboards, celebrity parties!
Vocabulary lists containing fanfare
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Then, at the start of June 2025, with great fanfare, the Strategic Defence Review was published – penned by a former Labour defence secretary, Lord Robertson.
From BBC • Jun. 13, 2026
In 2019, Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan were welcomed to North Korea with great pomp and fanfare to celebrate the two countries' "unbreakable friendship".
From Barron's • Jun. 5, 2026
But held under a magnifying glass and removed from the film’s fervent fanfare, those arguments fall apart.
From Salon • Jun. 4, 2026
Some projects first announced with great fanfare have later ended up being delayed or shelved.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 30, 2026
Another fanfare sounded and a slender, blond young man dressed in white and holding aloft a torch appeared at the eastern gate of the stadium.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
