- display
- display vb exhibit, *show, expose, parade, flauntdisplay n Display, parade, array, pomp are comparable when denoting a striking or spectacular show or exhibition for the sake of effect.Display commonly suggests a spreading out or an unfolding of something that is usually concealed or visible only in the mass or in individual instances, so that the observer is impressed by the extent, the detail, the beauty, or the lavishness of what is revealed to him{
a display of meteors
}{a parvenu's display of wealth
}{a nation's display of military power
}{fine editions that make an impressive display in an oilman's library— Green Péyton
}Parade implies ostentatious or flaunting exhibition; display may or may not suggest a conscious endeavor to impress, but parade definitely does carry such an implication{Mr. Cruncher could not be restrained from making rather an ostentatious parade of his liberality— Dickens
}{he does not make the least parade of his wealth or his gentility—5««z7/i
}Array stresses order and brilliancy in display of or as if of marshaled ranks of armed soldiers and therefore may be used of displays that strike one as beautiful, as terrible, or as merely astonishing{an array of tulips
}{an array of silver on a sideboard
}{the terrible array of evils around us and dangers in front of us— Shaw
}{clouds . . . each lost in each, that marvelous array of temple, palace, citadel— Wordsworth
}Pomp stresses ceremonial grandeur or splendor. Once often but now rarely used of a pageant or solemn procession it still suggests an outward spectacular show of magnificence or glory{it [Independence Day] ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with . . . bonfires, and illuminations— Adams
}{pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war— Shak.
}{lo, all our pomp of yesterday is one with Nineveh and Tyre— Kipling
}Analogous words: ostentatiousness or ostentation, pretentiousness or pretension, showiness or show (see corresponding adjectives at SHOWY)
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
