From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpageantpag‧eant /ˈpædʒənt/ noun [countable] 1 SHDLOan organized public show, often performed outdoors, where people dress in decorated or unusual clothes a colourful pageant of Scotland’s past2 American EnglishDLDC a public competition for young women in which their appearance, and sometimes other qualities, are compared and judged SYN beauty contest3 → the pageant of something
Examples from the Corpus
pageant• Their coming was unheralded by any pomp and pageant whatever...• Parents came to see their children in the annual Christmas pageant.• And all our actors have taken themselves off and deserted our little pageant, see?• He was representing the former Lords of the Manor at the pageant.• From inside, they heard the pageant rolled over on its back.• The latter group -- of which there are 288 this year -- must apply to participate in the pageant by January.• In the nineteenth century this leisurely view of the pageant of time began to speed up.• The pageant of African history is so rich and various.• Does a small-town pageant sound like comedy material?Origin pageant (1300-1400) Medieval Latin pagina “scene of a play”, from Latin, “page”; → PAGE1 