demonstration
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɛmənˈstɹeɪʃən/
rhymes: -eɪʃən
Forms: form: demonstrations
Etymology: From Middle English demonstracioun, from Old French demonstration, from Latin dēmōnstrātiōnem, from dēmōnstrāre (“show or explain”), from dē- (“of or concerning”) + mōnstrāre (“show”).
Morphologically demonstrate + -ion.
Senses: examples: text: [VV]e are able with playne demonſtration to proue, and vvith reaſon to perſvvade that in tymes paſt our fayth vvas alike, that then vve preached thinges correſpondent vnto the forme of faith already published of vs, ſo that none in this behalfe can repyne or gaynesay vs.
ref: 1577, Socrates Scholasticus [i.e., Socrates of Constantinople], “Constantinus the Emperour Summoneth the Nicene Councell, it was Held at Nicæa a Citie of Bythnia for the Debatinge of the Controuersie about the Feast of Easter, and the Rootinge out of the Heresie of Arius”, in Eusebius Pamphilus, Socrates Scholasticus, Evagrius Scholasticus, Dorotheus, translated by Meredith Hanmer, The Avncient Ecclesiasticall Histories of the First Six Hundred Yeares after Christ, Wrytten in the Greeke Tongue by Three Learned Historiographers, Eusebius, Socrates, and Euagrius. …, book I (The First Booke of the Ecclesiasticall Historye of Socrates Scholasticvs), imprinted at London: By Thomas Vautroullier dwelling in the Blackefriers by Ludgate, →OCLC, page 225:
glosses: The act of demonstrating; showing or explaining something.
glosses: The act of demonstrating; showing or explaining something.
A prisoner's act of beating up another prisoner.
examples: text: I have to give a demonstration to the class tomorrow, and I'm ill-prepared.
glosses: An event at which something will be demonstrated.
glosses: Expression of one's feelings by outward signs.
examples: text: It's produced tremendous activism and backlash: there's been all sorts of demonstrations and mobilizations in civil society, there's been examples from the people from the Administration being heckled in a restaurant or not served in a restaurant, there's been a growing crescendo of conversation about what that means.
ref: 2018 June 26, Chris Hayes, quotee, “How bad is it, really? Ezra Klein evaluates life in the Trump era: transcript & podcast”, in Why Is This Happening?:
text: Even when there had been hecklers, Victor and other members would focus on setting up their demonstration — signs reading “Let them go now,” and posters bearing the faces of 58 hostages still being held in Gaza.
ref: 2025 June 3, Danya Gainor and TuAnh Dam, “How a demonstration for Israeli hostages ended in an antisemitic firebombing”, in CNN:
glosses: A public display of group opinion, such as a protest march.
glosses: A show of military force.
examples: text: He read the proposition. […] So he reads the demonstration of it, which referred him back to such a proposition,; which proposition he read.
ref: a. 1697, John Aubrey, Brief Lives, s.v. Thomas Hobbes
text: If, then, proof from the basic truth is more accurate than proof not so derived, demonstration which depends more closely on it is more accurate than demonstration which is less closely dependent.
ref: 2021 September 21, Aristotle, The Complete Works of Aristotle. Illustrated: Logic, Universal Physics, Human Physics, Animal Physics, Metaphysics, Ethics and Politics and other, Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing:
topics: human-sciences
mathematics
philosophy
sciences
glosses: A proof.
Synonyms: sense: public display of opposition
word: protest
sense: public display of opposition
word: march
sense: public display of opposition
word: parade
sense: public display of opposition
word: manifestation
Derived terms: counterdemonstration
demonstrational
demonstration sport
nondemonstration
redemonstration
return demonstration
telestration
Related terms: demo
demonstrable
demonstrate
demonstrator
monster
remonstration