demonstration
Pluraldemonstrations
- 1An occasion when a group of people gather in public to make their shared views known, as in a protest march.
The demonstration drew tens of thousands to the capital's main avenue.
Police monitored the demonstration as marchers moved toward parliament.
Note
A march is only one shape this takes. A demonstration can also stand still. In Danya Gainor and TuAnh Dam's 2025 reporting, supporters of Israeli hostages "set up" their demonstration with signs and with posters bearing captives' faces. The word covers any organized public showing of a shared view. Chris Hayes pairs it with "mobilizations" and "activism" (2018), which is the company it usually keeps.
- 2The act of showing or explaining something, often how it works or is done.
Her demonstration of the new software convinced the whole team.
The chef's demonstration showed each step of making fresh pasta.
Similarpresentation, display, explanation, illustration, exhibition
Note
The root meaning, from which the rest of the word grows. It came through Middle English demonstracioun and Old French from Latin dēmōnstrāre, "to show or explain," which is built on mōnstrāre, "to show." It can name a single act (a demonstration) or the activity in general. Socrates Scholasticus in English (1577) proves things "with playne demonstration," which shows that showing and proving were close neighbors, as the "proof" meaning still records.
- 3An organized event at which a product, skill, or process is shown to an audience.
Hundreds attended the demonstration of the latest electric car.
The kitchen demonstration sold out within minutes of opening registration.
Similarpresentation, showcase, exhibition, display, show
- 4An expression of one's feelings through outward signs or actions.
The crowd's cheering was a heartfelt demonstration of gratitude.
He found such open demonstrations of affection embarrassing.
Similardisplay, expression, show, manifestation, sign
- 5A proof; a logical showing that a statement is true.
The mathematician's demonstration left no room for doubt about the result.
A rigorous demonstration must derive its conclusion from stated axioms.
Similarproof, verification, derivation, confirmation
Oppositedisproof, refutation
Note
In Aristotle's logic, demonstration is proof that proceeds from basic truths, and it is more accurate the more closely it depends on them. John Aubrey's Brief Lives shows the same chained structure: Thomas Hobbes reads a proposition, then its demonstration, which refers him back to an earlier proposition. In mathematics and philosophy the word pairs naturally with "proposition." First the claim is stated, then it is demonstrated.
- 6
- 7Among prisoners, an act of beating up another inmate.
Word spread through the cellblock that a demonstration was planned for the new arrival.
The older inmates ordered a demonstration to keep the wing in line.
Similarbeating, beatdown, thrashing, assault
Note
Inmates' slang, and a grimly ironic one: the beating is framed as a show, something put on display, which borrows the word's oldest idea of showing. Keep it to prison talk or reported speech. Outside that setting nearly every listener will hear the protest meaning, so any sentence using it needs to make the prison context unmistakable.
Practice
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Origin
This word came into Middle English as demonstracioun through Old French, from Latin dēmōnstrātiōnem, based on dēmōnstrāre ("show or explain"). That verb was formed from dē- ("of or concerning") plus mōnstrāre ("show").