Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A splendid or striking array or arrangement.
  • noun Ceremonial attire with all accessories.
  • noun Something that covers and protects.
  • noun The complete arms and armor of a warrior.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A complete set or suit of arms, offensive and defensive; the complete defensive armor of any period, especially that from the fifteenth century onward, when all the pieces were of wrought steel and accurately adapted to their purpose: often used figuratively.
  • noun A group or assemblage of pieces of defensive armor, with or without weapons, arranged as a sort of trophy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Defensive armor in general; a full suit of defensive armor.
  • noun Any full set of elaborate attire, complete with accessories or accompanying paraphernalia; any elaborate special or ceremonial attire and equipment.
  • noun Any impressive complete array.
  • noun Any complete array of devices used in an endeavor.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A splendid display of something.
  • noun by extension a collection or display of weaponry
  • noun Ceremonial garments, complete with all accessories.
  • noun A complete set of armour.
  • noun by extension Something that covers and protects.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a complete and impressive array

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek panopliā : pan-, pan- + hopla, arms, armor, pl. of hoplon, weapon.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek πανοπλία (panoplía), from πάν (pan, "all") (English pan-) + ὅπλον (oplos, "arms") (English hopl-).

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Examples

  • Hasan a steed of the best and equipped him in panoply and weaponed him with goodly weapons.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • I ` m going to go look up the word panoply or whatever it was.

    CNN Transcript Sep 6, 2007 2007

  • The fact that Harlequin, Virtue and Pleasure are incorporated into the list suggests that the entire panoply is understood to be similarly fanciful.

    Through Colonial Spectacles: the Irish Vizier and the Female-Knight in James Cobb 2000

  • Votes were passed for deposing the Four Hundred, and placing the government in the hands of the 5000, of whom every citizen who could furnish a panoply might be a member.

    A Smaller history of Greece From the earliest times to the Roman conquest William Smith 1853

  • "Social welfare" was defined as a panoply of expenditures, including health care, housing support, unemployment benefit, disability allowances, family support and help for job seekers.

    Medindia Health News 2010

  • "Social welfare" was defined as a panoply of expenditures, including health care, housing support, unemployment benefit, disability allowances, family support and help for job seekers.

    Medindia Health News 2010

  • "Social welfare" was defined as a panoply of expenditures, including health care, housing support, unemployment benefit, disability allowances, family support and help for job seekers.

    EU News 2010

  • It was just like a Hollywood movie and it was something that people in England have not seen for a long time and I don't think that anybody had had that kind of panoply of grandeur.

    CNN Transcript Nov 4, 2005 2005

  • The Greeks, among other weapons (such as bow and arrow), military tools and machines which they were implicating in war, were using most often for a body to body combat swords and spears and possibly less often axes, and of course they were protecting their bodies by using a "panoply" of defensive tools and clothing.

    Fallen Heroes Bulletin Board 2000

  • The Doctor had spent the night in devotion, and came from his oratory clad in that celestial panoply which is proof against the terrors of military array.

    The Loyalists, Vol. 1-3 An Historical Novel Jane West 1805

Comments

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  • "It’s an impressive panoply of moonbat leftist self-loathing, exemplified by Republican political leaders holding hands with the Devil...."

    January 12, 2007

  • The Pixies original name was "Pixies in Panoply"

    January 29, 2007

  • "On one level, this is just the low comedy of the profit motive: our finest techno-­wizards and their beautiful machines wrestling with the meaning of ':)' so that some cellphone company can micro-target its fee increases. But Baker also, in effect, offers a counternarrative to the usual story about the digital revolution. While millions of ordinary citizens have been em­powered to express their individuality with a panoply of new tools, a smaller number of people have been working out the most efficient ways to convert those individuals into numbers on a spreadsheet." -- They’ve Got Your Number, NYT, 10/31/08

    November 4, 2008

  • asvab- display - an impressive array of assembled persons

    March 7, 2011