Word.ws English Dictionary

spectacle

Syllables: spec·ta·cle/ˈspɛktəkl̩/

spectacle noun: an exciting or extraordinary scene, exhibition, performance etc. Also the attributive form of spectacles.

spectacle: person standing under stage lights facing crowd
Photo by Jacob Morch on Unsplash

Noun

spectacle (plural spectacles)

  1. (countable) An exciting or extraordinary scene, exhibition, performance etc.
    • The horse race was a thrilling spectacle.
    • But scarcely was it set upon the table when the whole was carried off and plundered by the people who came to see the spectacle of the entertainment1876, Robert Southey, edited by John Wood Warter, Choice passages, Reaves and Turner, page 555
    Synonyms:
    pageant, show
  2. (uncountable) Drama and excitement in a display, product, performance, exhibition, etc.
    • I enjoyed her presentation, but it needs more spectacle.
  3. (countable) An embarrassing or unedifying scene or situation.
    • He made a spectacle out of himself.
  4. (countable) The brille of a snake.
  5. (countable) A frame with different coloured lenses on a semaphore signal through which light from a lamp shines at night, often a part of the signal arm.

Also used as

spectacle is also the attributive form of spectacles.

spectacle meaning in Urdu, Punjabi and Arabic

spectacle in Urdu

تماشہ, تماشا

spectacle in Punjabi

something exciting or extraordinary
ਤਮਾਸ਼ਾ tamāśā

spectacle in Arabic

something exciting or extraordinary
مَشْهَد mašhad, مَسْرَحِيَّة masraḥiyya

Examples of spectacle in a sentence

  • He needed to get new spectacles because his original ones had broken.
  • She had far too much to drink and made a spectacle of herself by flirting with everyone.
  • The local hero is getting color in tonight's spectacle.

All 40 example sentences with spectacle

Synonyms of spectacle

All synonyms of spectacle

Forms of spectacle

pluralspectacles

Plural of spectacle: spectacles

Origin of spectacle

From Middle English spectacle, from Middle French spectacle, from Latin spectāculum (“a show, spectacle”), from spectō (“to see, behold”), frequentative of speciō (“to see”). See species. Doublet of spectaculum.

Words formed from spectacle

Phrases with spectacle

Questions about spectacle

What does spectacle mean?
Spectacle means an exciting or extraordinary scene, exhibition, performance etc.
What is spectacle in Urdu?
Spectacle in Urdu is تماشہ, تماشا. See Spectacle meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is spectacle?
Spectacle is a noun.
How do you pronounce spectacle?
Spectacle is pronounced /ˈspɛktəkl̩/.
What is the plural of spectacle?
The plural of spectacle is spectacles.

Words near spectacle in the dictionary

  1. spect
  2. spect-actor
  3. spect-actors
  4. spectable
  5. spectabulous
  6. spectacle
  7. spectacle case
  8. spectacle cases
  9. spectacled
  10. spectacled bear
  11. spectacled bears

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spectacle (page history and authors); spectacle (Urdu, 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-spectacle.wav.

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