Banns

//bænz// name, noun

name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The announcement of a forthcoming marriage (legally required for a church wedding in England and Wales and read on the three Sundays preceding the marriage). plural, plural-only

    "VVhy the banns have been publiſhed, and nobody has forbidden them, 'tis true—but you know either of the parties may change their minds even after they enter the church."

  2. 2
    a public announcement of a proposed marriage wordnet
  3. 3
    Any public announcement of an upcoming event. historical, plural, plural-only

    "The Banes which are reade beefore the beginninge of the playes of Chester, 4 June, 1600."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    plural of Bann form-of, plural

Synonyms

All synonyms
affiancebanns of marriagebanns of marriagebanns of matrimonybetrothalbetrothment

Example

More examples

"VVhy the banns have been publiſhed, and nobody has forbidden them, 'tis true—but you know either of the parties may change their minds even after they enter the church."

Etymology

An alteration of bans.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.