Word.ws English Dictionary

Vanity Fair

UK/ˌvænɪti ˈfɛə/US/ˌvænəti ˈfɛɚ/

Vanity Fair proper noun: society, especially high society, as a place of self-interest and the superficial.

Proper noun

Vanity Fair

  1. (derogatory) Society, especially high society, as a place of self-interest and the superficial.
    • And how will your conscience answer one day for carrying so many bonny lasses to barter modesty for conceit and levity at the metropolitan Vanity Fair?1827, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in Chronicles of the Canongate; […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 46
    • Such a complete Vanity Fair as the Palais Royal, is not, I imagine, to be found any where else1828, William Buell Sprague, Letters from Europe, in 1828: first published in the New York observer, page 49

Origin of Vanity Fair

From “Vanity Fair”, location of a debauched year-long festival in the 1678 novel The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.

Questions about Vanity Fair

What does Vanity Fair mean?
Vanity Fair means society, especially high society, as a place of self-interest and the superficial.
What part of speech is Vanity Fair?
Vanity Fair is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Vanity Fair?
Vanity Fair is pronounced /ˌvænɪti ˈfɛə/ (UK).

Words near Vanity Fair in the dictionary

  1. vanity cards
  2. vanity case
  3. vanity cases
  4. vanity domain
  5. vanity domains
  6. Vanity Fair
  7. vanity height
  8. vanity heights
  9. vanity item
  10. vanity items
  11. vanity label

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Vanity Fair (page history and authors). 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:

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