adjective
definition
Deeply serious and somber.
definition
Somberly impressive.
definition
Performed with great ceremony.
definition
Sacred.
definition
Gloomy or sombre.
Examples of solemn in a Sentence
He had been unusually quiet and solemn lately.
The bodies of Burke and Wills were recovered and brought to Melbourne for a solemn public funeral, and a noble monument has been erected to their honour.
On their faces was a quiet and solemn look.
No wonder he had been so solemn lately.
It was a solemn oath of trust that can't be broken.
They stopped dancing and he gazed down at her with a solemn expression.
There was a solemn procession of the choir to the crossing.
My heart, too, was full of gratitude and solemn joy.
His solemn gaze swung back to her.
His solemn gaze roved over her face.
The solemn moment was broken with a snicker that went around the room.
Do not let us be too solemn on the business.
Bordeaux took her hand in his and she gazed up into his solemn features.
After three years in simple vows, the young nun may ask to take solemn vows which bind her for life.
We were sitting together in a hammock which swung from two solemn pines at a short distance from the house.
She met his solemn gaze.
There is a mystery - a very solemn mystery.
Aside from his solemn expression, there was nothing in the way he acted with the children that might indicate anything was wrong between them.
He made a solemn vow to start tomorrow.
It was a solemn affair and they spent most of the afternoon talking to people she had never met.
He lifted her chin with a curled index finger and forced her to meet his solemn gaze.
They are memorable occasions with first-rate speakers, properly run but not solemn.
But the most important offering was the solemn oblation in the assembly on the Lord's day.
A busload of QPR fans passed us looking so solemn, you'd have thought they were on their way to a funeral.
Solemn stillness followed.
The deep set blue eyes held a smile that belied his solemn expression.
Does the word "rite" seem too solemn?
Six days eat unleavened bread, on the seventh a solemn assembly.
Her expression was solemn, but the eyes that regarded Lisa were full of mischief.
These doctrinal interpretations introduce the economy of blinding the Jews into the parabolic teaching; the declaration as to the redemptive character of the Passion into the sayings; the sacramental, institutional words into the account of the Last Supper, originally, a solemnly simple Messianic meal; and the formal night-trial before Caiaphas into the original Passion-story with its informal, morning decision by Caiaphas, and its one solemn condemnation of Jesus, by Pilate.
The creatures did not look pleasant or friendly, to be sure, and the shaggy man's donkey face became solemn, indeed.
Now that Christmas can be openly celebrated, the season is full of solemn rituals, but also great joy.
On solemn occasions the inspiring drink soma (haoma) ministered to the enjoyment of the devout.
It is used not only at pontifical High Mass but at all solemn pontifical functions, e.g.
The ode was followed by a solemn service in St Mark's, in which Zarlino's music formed a prominent feature, and the festival concluded with the representation of a dramatic piece entitled Orfeo composed by Zarlino.
He was twice banished for attempting to overthrow the oligarchical party in Syracuse; in 317 he returned with an army of mercenaries under a solemn oath to observe the democratic constitution which was then set up. Having banished or murdered some Io,000 citizens, and thus made himself master of Syracuse, he created a strong army and fleet and subdued the greater part of Sicily.
The religious vocation of Israel was no longer national but ecclesiastical or municipal, and the historical continuity of the nation was vividly realized only within the walls of Jerusalem and the courts of the Temple, in the solemn assembly and stately ceremonial of a feast day.
It was elaborated, and connected with dogmatic Gallicanism, by the famous theologian, Edmond Richer (1559-1631), and finally incorporated by Bossuet in a solemn Declaration of the French Clergy, made in 1682.
In formulating this appeal he declared that when the Boers were at war with Mosilikatze, chief of the Matabele, he had aided them on the solemn understanding that they were to respect his boundaries.
The travel-document in Acts often refers to the solemn breaking of bread.
To the apostles, as Jews bred and born, the action and words of their master formed a solemn and ' Das Evangelium Marci, p. 121.
No more solemn duty weighs upon the Chinaman than that of tending the spirits of his dead forefathers.
On the appointed day the nun goes through all the ritual of the marriage ceremony, after a solemn mass at which all the inmates of the convent assist.
Connected with the triumph was the pompa circensis, or solemn procession which preceded the games in the circus; it first came into use at the ludi roman, when the games were preceded by a great procession from the Capitol to the Circus.
Processions, with singing of the litany or of hymns, appear also to have been always usual on such occasions as the consecration of churches and churchyards and the solemn reception of a visiting bishop. Under the influence of the Catholic revival, associated with the Oxford Tractarians, processions have become increasingly popular in the English Church, pre-Reformation usages having in some churches been revived without any legal sanction.
The communication to the candidates of the Creed and Lord's Prayer was a solemn rite.
They were also taken hold of by the Greeks when making their most solemn oaths.
Here the Grail is wrought of gold richly set with precious stones; it is carried in solemn procession, and the light issuing from it extinguishes that of the candles.
In the same century at Rome and at Constantinople we hear of "penitentiaries," that is priests appointed to act for the bishop in hearing the confession of sins, and deciding whether public discipline was necessary and, if it was, on its duration; in other words they prepared the penitents for solemn reconciliation by the bishop. A scandal at Constantinople in 391 led to the suppression in that city not only of the office of penitentiary, but practically of public exomologesis also, and that seemingly in Eastern Christendom generally, so that the individual was left to assess his own penance, and to present himself for communion at his own discretion.
As an inducement, the Solemn League and Covenant was signed by all Parliamentarian Englishmen, the terms of which were interpreted by the Scots to bind England to submit to Presbyterianism, though the most important clauses had been purposely left vague, so as to afford a loophole of escape.