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Exhibition vs Spectacle - What's the difference?

exhibition | spectacle |

As nouns the difference between exhibition and spectacle

is that exhibition is an instance of exhibiting, or something exhibited while spectacle is something exhibited to view; usually, something presented to view as extraordinary, or as unusual and worthy of special notice; a remarkable or noteworthy sight; a show; a pageant.

exhibition

Noun

(en noun)
  • An instance of exhibiting, or something exhibited.
  • A large scale public showing of objects or products.
  • There was an art exhibition on in the town hall.
    a boat exhibition
  • (UK) A financial award or prize given to a student (who becomes an exhibitioner) by a school or university, usually on the basis of academic merit.
  • * 1978 , (Lawrence Durrell), Livia'', Faber & Faber 1992 (''Avignon Quintet ), p. 352:
  • He was a scholarship boy who had won an Exhibition to Oxford, and then, like so many others, had found himself thrown upon the slave market of pedagogy.

    Derived terms

    * exhibitionism * make an exhibition of oneself

    spectacle

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something exhibited to view; usually, something presented to view as extraordinary, or as unusual and worthy of special notice; a remarkable or noteworthy sight; a show; a pageant
  • * 22 March 2012 , Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Games [http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-hunger-games,71293/]
  • In movie terms, it suggests Paul Verhoeven in Robocop/Starship Troopers mode, an R-rated bloodbath where the grim spectacle of children murdering each other on television is bread-and-circuses for the age of reality TV, enforced by a totalitarian regime to keep the masses at bay.
  • An exciting exhibition, performance or event.
  • An embarrassing situation
  • He made a spectacle out of himself
  • (usually, in the plural) An optical instrument consisting of two lenses set in a light frame, and worn to assist sight, to obviate some defect in the organs of vision, or to shield the eyes from bright light.
  • (figuratively) An aid to the intellectual sight.
  • * Chaucer
  • Poverty a spectacle is, as thinketh me, Through which he may his very friends see.
  • (obsolete) A spyglass; a looking-glass.
  • The brille of a snake.
  • Synonyms

    * (optical instrument) glasses, eyeglasses, specs