coronation

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act or ceremony of crowning a sovereign or the sovereign's consort.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act or ceremony of investing with a crown, as a sovereign or the consort of a sovereign. The ceremony is generally religious as well as political, and includes the anointing of the sovereign, originally in several parts of the body, and still in a solemn and ceremonious way; the investing with certain garments forming a consecrated dress; the bestowal or assumption of the scepter, sword, and orb; and the placing of the crown upon the head. At different periods in the history of Europe coronation has been essential to entrance upon kingly dignity and power; but where the order of succession is perfectly established, the authority of the new sovereign is considered as beginning with the death of his predecessor, and the coronation is only a ceremonial consecration.
2. n. The scene or spectacle of a coronation.
3. n. In the Gr. Ch., the sacrament of matrimony; especially, that part of the marriage service which constitutes the nuptials, as distinguished from the preliminary office of betrothal. It is so called because the principal ceremony consists in the priest's placing garlands or crowns on the heads of the bridegroom and bride. In Greece garlands of olive-branches, twined with white and purple ribbon, are used for this purpose; in Russia, metal crowns belonging to the church, and preferably of gold or silver. This ceremony is mentioned by St. Chrysostom and other early Christian writers.
4. n. The carnation, Dianthus Caryophyllus. See carnation, 3.

Wiktionary

1. n. The act or solemnity of crowning a sovereign; the act of investing a prince with the insignia of royalty, on his succeeding to the sovereignty.
2. n. The pomp or assembly at a coronation.
3. n. slang, sarcastic An uncontested party leadership election.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act or solemnity of crowning a sovereign; the act of investing a prince with the insignia of royalty, on his succeeding to the sovereignty.
2. n. The pomp or assembly at a coronation.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the ceremony of installing a new monarch