Word.ws English Dictionary

fanfare

UK/ˈfænfɛə//ˈfænfɛɹ/

fanfare noun: a flourish of trumpets or horns as to announce; a short and lively air performed on hunting horns during the chase.

Noun

fanfare (countable and uncountable, plural fanfares)

  1. (countable) A flourish of trumpets or horns as to announce; a short and lively air performed on hunting horns during the chase.
    • They played a short fanfare to announce the arrival of the king.
    • This new locomotive was turned out of Doncaster works in May, 1934, to a mighty fanfare of trumpets.1942 February, O. S. Nock, “The Locomotives of Sir Nigel Gresley: Part VII”, in Railway Magazine, page 44
  2. A show of ceremony or celebration.
    • The town opened the new library with fanfare and a speech from the mayor.
    • I have arrived to catch the 0830 TfW service to Crewe, worked by a tatty and unrefurbished 175114. As if ashamed of its appearance, it slinks into Platform 2 (instead of Platform 1, where it was expected). No announcement had been made, and we leave without any fanfare.2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 67

Verb

fanfare (third-person singular simple present fanfares, present participle fanfaring, simple past and past participle fanfared)

  1. To play a fanfare.
    • At this the trumpeters again most earnestly fanfared,1887, Truth - Volume 22, page 33
    • The miscreant is shamed into just standing there mortified and not fanfaring at all while the others finish the greeting to the arriving guest.1993, James W. Gousseff, Street Mime, →ISBN, page 168
  2. To embellish with fanfares.
    • Today the mower's metal music fanfared summer's choir of motley symphonies and high concertos piped or chanted from a treetop, droned above the pollen bee flowers, babbled over stony brook-beds, whispered by the whine of willow,1946, John Hugh Brignal Peel, Mere England: a poem, page 49
    • PAM is a guitar song fanfared by massive chords on an acoustic 12-string (probably (ribbed From The Who's contemporary hit 'Pinball Wizard').2008, Ian MacDonald, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties, →ISBN, page 364
  3. To imitate a fanfare, in order to dramatize the presentation or introduction of something.
    • The name of the farm we were staying on was, tun-tun-tah,' I fanfared dramatically, 'Le Tomple, the temple. Spooky eh?'2008, Hugo Soskin, The Cook, the Rat and the Heretic, →ISBN
    • 'Wooooeeee!' fanfared Sweetness Asiim Engineer, throwing her head back and letting her greasy bonny black hair reel out behind her like a banner of anarchy.2010, Ian McDonald, Ares Express, →ISBN
  4. To introduce with pomp and show.
    • Grindingly, laths of wood yielded to brown and yellow hands, a wrenching and screaming of twisted nails fanfared the discovery of the treasure beneath.1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 463
    • Cohorts of charabancs fanfared Offa's province and his concern, negotiating the by-ways from Teme to Trent.1990, Leonard M. Trawick, World, Self, Poem, →ISBN, page 32
  5. To mark an arrival or departure with music, noise, or drama.
    • She stepped neatly into the fray, took up Rover's slack lead and marched him briskly in a northerly direction away from the miniature foe, their retreat fanfared by the triumphant sound of the terrier who obviously thought he had bested an unworthy opponent, and who strutted after them for a few...2005, Lesley Zobian, The Hanged Man, →ISBN, page 82
    • Among the memorable characters in this epic enterprise are the power-hungry Kenneth Widmerpool, whose beginnings are inauspicious, but who eventually achieves formidable influence through a series of ruthless manoeuvres, and Sir Magnus Donners, at whose mansion World War II is fanfared with a...2006, Dominic Head, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, →ISBN, page 271
  6. To publicize or announce.
    • So, did quacks cash in on this, fanfaring their own capacity to quell pain?1989, Roy Porter, Health for Sale: Quackery in England, 1660-1850, →ISBN, page 131
    • The launch pad for this was the Seventeenth Party Congress in January 1934, fanfared by press editorials and street slogans assuring the Soviet people that 'Life has become better, life has become happier'.2006, Ian MacDonald, Raymond Clarke, The New Shostakovich, →ISBN, page 104
  7. To fan out.
    • Just so, light beaded on tin lanterns, drops fanfared from sprinklers, minnows fluted in pools.2000, Veronica Patterson, Swan, what Shores?, →ISBN, page 11
    • These autumn flowers were in full bloom, fanfaring in the cool autumn wind.2010, Gudmundina Haflidason, Amid The Rubble of World War II, →ISBN, page 213

fanfare meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam

fanfare in Hindi

फैनफ़ेरिंग, फैनफेरिंग, फैनफैरिंग

fanfare in Tamil

ஆரவாரம், எக்காள முழக்கம்

fanfare in Telugu

ఫ్యాన్ఫేర్, ఫ్యాన్ ఫేర్, ఫ్యాన్ఫేరింగ్

fanfare in Malayalam

മോടികാട്ടൽ, കാഹളഘോഷം, കോലാഹലം
More languagesFewer languages
fanfare in Kannada
ಫ್ಯಾನ್ಫೇರ್, ಫ್ಯಾನ್ಫೇರಿಂಗ್
fanfare in Punjabi
ਫੈਨਫੇਰਿੰਗ
fanfare in Gujarati
ફેનફેરિંગ, ફેનફિયરિંગ
fanfare in Odia
ଫ୍ଯ଼ାନ୍ଫେରିଙ୍ଗ୍
fanfare in Indonesian
fanfare

Examples of fanfare in a sentence

  • A hundred trumpets fanfared as they entered, echoing brazenly in the black vault above.2005, Christine Davidson, The Darkling and the Lady, →ISBN:
  • Trumpets, tabors, shawms, and pipes fanfared the court to the midday repast in the presence chamber.2009, Rona Sharon, Royal Blood, →ISBN:
  • In the next room, a vending machine fanfared a five-note bar.2014, Charles J Harwood, Nora, →ISBN:
  • It could be fêted and fanfared and ushered into the white-tie events with a guest pass that read Literature with a capital 'L'.2008, Rachel Falconer, The Crossover Novel, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with fanfare

Forms of fanfare

Noun
pluralfanfares
Verb
third-person singular presentfanfares
present participlefanfaring
past participlefanfared
pastfanfared

Plural of fanfare: fanfares

Origin of fanfare

Borrowed from French fanfare; some senses apparently influenced by surface analysis, fan + fare.

Words formed from fanfare

Questions about fanfare

What does fanfare mean?
Fanfare means a flourish of trumpets or horns as to announce; a short and lively air performed on hunting horns during the chase.
What is fanfare in Hindi?
Fanfare in Hindi is फैनफ़ेरिंग, फैनफेरिंग, फैनफैरिंग. See Fanfare meaning in Hindi.
How do you use fanfare in a sentence?
A hundred trumpets fanfared as they entered, echoing brazenly in the black vault above.
What part of speech is fanfare?
Fanfare can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce fanfare?
Fanfare is pronounced /ˈfænfɛə/ (UK).
What is the plural of fanfare?
The plural of fanfare is fanfares.

Words near fanfare in the dictionary

  1. Faneuils
  2. Fanfan
  3. Fanfans
  4. fanfarade
  5. fanfarades
  6. fanfare
  7. fanfared
  8. fanfarelike
  9. fanfares
  10. fanfaring
  11. fanfarings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fanfare (page history and authors); fanfare (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fanfare (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fanfare (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fanfare (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fanfare (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fanfare (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fanfare (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fanfare (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-fanfare.ogg.

Cite this entry: “fanfare.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fanfare. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.