MAGNIFICENCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does magnificence mean? 

• MAGNIFICENCE (noun)
  The noun MAGNIFICENCE has 2 senses:

1. splendid or imposing in size or appearance

2. the quality of being magnificent or splendid or grand

  Familiarity information: MAGNIFICENCE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MAGNIFICENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Splendid or imposing in size or appearance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

grandness; impressiveness; magnificence; richness

Context example:

impressed by the richness of the flora

Hypernyms ("magnificence" is a kind of...):

excellence (the quality of excelling; possessing good qualities in high degree)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "magnificence"):

expansiveness; expansivity (a quality characterized by magnificence of scale or the tendency to expand)

loftiness; majesty; stateliness (impressiveness in scale or proportion)

Derivation:

magnificent (characterized by grandeur)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of being magnificent or splendid or grand

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

brilliance; grandeur; grandness; magnificence; splendor; splendour

Context example:

advertisers capitalize on the grandness and elegance it brings to their products

Hypernyms ("magnificence" is a kind of...):

elegance (a refined quality of gracefulness and good taste)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "magnificence"):

eclat (brilliant or conspicuous success or effect)

Derivation:

magnificent (characterized by grandeur)

 Context examples 

The wedding was held with great magnificence and small joy, and out of a tailor a king was made.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The emperor had a mind one day to entertain me with several of the country shows, wherein they exceed all nations I have known, both for dexterity and magnificence.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

This man, whose name was Beaufort, was of a proud and unbending disposition and could not bear to live in poverty and oblivion in the same country where he had formerly been distinguished for his rank and magnificence.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Erected by Sir Balwin de Redvers in the old fighting days of the twelfth century, when men thought much of war and little of comfort, Castle Twynham had been designed as a stronghold pure and simple, unlike those later and more magnificent structures where warlike strength had been combined with the magnificence of a palace.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When the general had satisfied his own curiosity, in a close examination of every well-known ornament, they proceeded into the library, an apartment, in its way, of equal magnificence, exhibiting a collection of books, on which an humble man might have looked with pride.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Besides, I now considered myself as bound by the laws of hospitality, to a people who had treated me with so much expense and magnificence.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It was during an access of this kind that I suddenly left my home, and bending my steps towards the near Alpine valleys, sought in the magnificence, the eternity of such scenes, to forget myself and my ephemeral, because human, sorrows.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The wives and daughters lament their confinement to the island, although I think it the most delicious spot of ground in the world; and although they live here in the greatest plenty and magnificence, and are allowed to do whatever they please, they long to see the world, and take the diversions of the metropolis, which they are not allowed to do without a particular license from the king; and this is not easy to be obtained, because the people of quality have found, by frequent experience, how hard it is to persuade their women to return from below.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

At the same time the emperor had a great desire that I should see the magnificence of his palace; but this I was not able to do till three days after, which I spent in cutting down with my knife some of the largest trees in the royal park, about a hundred yards distant from the city.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

And because my first inclination was to be entertained with scenes of pomp and magnificence, I desired to see Alexander the Great at the head of his army, just after the battle of Arbela: which, upon a motion of the governor’s finger, immediately appeared in a large field, under the window where we stood.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)