fanfare means A flourish of trumpets or horns as to announce; a short and lively air performed on hunting horns during the chase. It carries an Arena rating of 1841, earned across 38 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, fanfare ranks #121 of 40,262 for Qualifying, #430 of 17,115 for Most Vivid Words, #882 of 17,130 for Most Ingenious Words, #900 of 17,116 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
fanfare is pronounced /ˈfænfɛə/.
Why “fanfare” is a great word
A short, lively, and often showy sounding of trumpets or other brass instruments, used to announce or celebrate an important event. Borrowed from French fanfare ("a sounding of trumpets"), first attested in English c. 1600. Unlike a "flourish," which can be any decorative musical gesture, or a "ceremony," the formal rite it precedes, a fanfare is specifically the audible, metallic herald. It is the sudden blaze of gold horns at a coronation, the stadium's electric growl before kickoff, and the collective intake of breath that follows its final note—a brash, brilliant puncturing of silence that exists only to insist the next moment matters.
Etymology
Borrowed from French fanfare; some senses apparently influenced by surface analysis, fan + fare.
noun
- A flourish of trumpets or horns as to announce; a short and lively air performed on hunting horns during the chase.e.g.“They played a short fanfare to announce the arrival of the king.”
- A show of ceremony or celebration.e.g.“The town opened the new library with fanfare and a speech from the mayor.”
verb
- To play a fanfare.e.g.“At this the trumpeters again most earnestly fanfared,”
- To embellish with fanfares.
- To imitate a fanfare, in order to dramatize the presentation or introduction of something.e.g.“The name of the farm we were staying on was, tun-tun-tah,' I fanfared dramatically, 'Le Tomple, the temple. Spooky eh?'”
- To introduce with pomp and show.e.g.“Grindingly, laths of wood yielded to brown and yellow hands, a wrenching and screaming of twisted nails fanfared the discovery of the treasure beneath.”
- To mark an arrival or departure with music, noise, or drama.
- To publicize or announce.e.g.“So, did quacks cash in on this, fanfaring their own capacity to quell pain?”
- To fan out.e.g.“Just so, light beaded on tin lanterns, drops fanfared from sprinklers, minnows fluted in pools.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.