noun ·3 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The profession or art of devising, granting and blazoning coats of arms, tracing genealogies and ruling on questions of protocol or rank. uncountable

   "Rouge Dragon Pursuivant is a specialist in heraldry at the College of Arms."

2. 2
   emblem indicating the right of a person to bear arms wordnet
3. 3
   An armorial ensign along with its history and description. countable
4. 4
   the study and classification of armorial bearings and the tracing of genealogies wordnet
5. 5
   Pageantry. uncountable

   "Onlookers were impressed by the rich and colorful heraldry."

Synonyms

All synonyms

armorybadgebadge of officebadgesbatonblazonry

Example

More examples

"Heraldry is his hobbyhorse: he steers the conversation in that direction whenever he gets the chance."

Etymology

From herald + -ry. First attested in 1572. Displaced earlier heraldy, equivalent to herald + -y.

Related phrases

coat of arms

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