vernissage
/ˌvɛɹnəˈsɑʒ/noun
vernissage is a noun meaning “A private viewing of an art exhibition before it opens to the public” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled V-E-R-N-I-S-S-A-G-E, and it appears about once in every 25 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of vernissage is vernissages.
What does vernissage mean?
noun
- 1
A private viewing of an art exhibition before it opens to the public.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce vernissage?
- UK /vɛːnɪˈsɑːʒ/
- US /ˌvɛɹnəˈsɑʒ/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of vernissage
- vernissages plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is vernissage?
Vernissage appears about once in every 25 million words in written English, the 150,355th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Vernissage in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense private viewing of an exhibition before it opens to the public:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | vernissage |
| German | Vernissage |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does vernissage come from?
From French vernissage, derived from the earlier habit of the artists to varnish their paintings the day before the opening of an exhibition.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).