What's the difference between ceremonious and punctilious?

Ceremonious


Definition:

  • (a.) Consisting of outward forms and rites; ceremonial. [In this sense ceremonial is now preferred.]
  • (a.) According to prescribed or customary rules and forms; devoted to forms and ceremonies; formally respectful; punctilious.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) At the ceremony, the Taliban welcomed dialogue with Washington but said their fighters would not stop fighting.
  • (2) The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge stood among the graves on 4 August last year in a moving ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of war.
  • (3) The ceremony is the much-anticipated shop window for the Games, and Boyle was brought in to provide the creative vision.
  • (4) They also made it clear that they would seek to use the award to bring their two countries closer together and said they would invite their prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan and Narendra Modi of India, to the award ceremony in Oslo in December.
  • (5) Perhaps you'd like to know how she felt holding the Olympic flag alongside Ban Ki-moon at the 2012 opening ceremony .
  • (6) From Africa, the archbishop of Kenya warned "the devil has entered the church", while a few days before the ceremony Robinson received a postcard from England, depicting the high altar of Durham cathedral and bearing the message: "You fornicating, lecherous pig."
  • (7) I'm having a civil partnership ceremony in six weeks and don't know whether to invite my mum.
  • (8) An adviser to the Sultan of Aïr, the town’s ceremonial leader , sighs.
  • (9) But some wise old heads sniff into their handkerchiefs because they have sat through too many costly "happy ever after" ceremonies that ended in acrimony.
  • (10) Philip and Roger Taylor-Brown, who have been together for three years and have already changed their names by deed poll, registered in Manchester yesterday for a ceremony on December 21.
  • (11) They are doing it not because they believe the 66-year-old can win in 2020, but for the same reason people retweet images of same-sex wedding ceremonies.
  • (12) His rise to office came a day after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at D-day commemoration ceremonies in France.
  • (13) A ceremony will take place at which Jolie will receive the child, who is said to be healthy, likeable, a bit shy and keen on football.
  • (14) Those who wish to turn the tragedy between us, Palestinians and Israel … into a religious war have blood on their hands,” Rivlin, whose post is mainly ceremonial, told journalists.
  • (15) When Emma Horan and Sam Whitney get married next summer they will commit themselves to each other in a special place, surrounded by their family and closest friends, but, as things stand, the wedding ceremony will not be recognised in law because their belief system is not based on religion.
  • (16) As a central feature of every ceremony, Nepali shamans (jhãkris) publicly recite lengthy oral texts, whose meticulous memorization constitutes the core of shamanic training.
  • (17) They marched to the police roadblock, and performed a 21-gun salute for a fallen veteran and a prayer ceremony on the bridge.
  • (18) The ceremony also produced the most retweeted photograph ever, with Ellen DeGeneres’ “selfie” attracting more than 2m retweets to smash Barack Obama’s record .
  • (19) It posted photos on its website of what it said was Thargyal's charred body covered in ceremonial yellow silk scarves and hundreds of people marching up a hill to a cremation site where his remains were burned.
  • (20) There was no media coverage of the signing, in contrast to the high-profile ceremonies this week when Obama issued his orders on ethics reform and Guantánamo Bay.

Punctilious


Definition:

  • (a.) Attentive to punctilio; very nice or exact in the forms of behavior, etiquette, or mutual intercourse; precise; exact in the smallest particulars.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It is a sorry reminder that physical evidence must be closeted with care and punctiliously marked for later courtroom uses.
  • (2) The attorney general, George Brandis, sprang to the defence of Heydon, saying the commissioner had an “absolutely stainless reputation for punctilious integrity” and his withdrawal from the event should be the end of the matter.
  • (3) John Prescott's department published an annual Opportunities for All report that punctiliously monitored these social targets: 48 out of 59 indicators improved.
  • (4) Young love; pageantry delivered punctiliously; and old love, too.
  • (5) All he can do – if, as he appears to, he shares the shock of other national leaders – is to join international efforts to establish what happened, even if the results may be unwelcome, and show a punctilious regard for due process.
  • (6) But France, too, must be punctilious about observing all judicial proprieties.
  • (7) Experts think authorities are likely to be punctilious in complying with legal requirements given the close scrutiny.
  • (8) Good-hearted, apparently punctilious people show bias without realising it and may well be taken back or affronted if anyone suggests they have acted unfairly.
  • (9) Photograph: Frank Martin It’s the same sense of fairness that means that, sometimes in the cracks, while writing about other things, he takes time to punctiliously acknowledge his influences – Alan Coren , for example, who pioneered so many of the techniques of short humour that Terry and I have filched over the years; or the glorious, overstuffed, heady thing that is Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable and its compiler, t he Rev E Cobham Brewer , that most serendipitious of authors.
  • (10) Brandis disputed the description of the event as a fundraiser, saying Heydon had an “absolutely stainless reputation for punctilious integrity” and his withdrawal should be the end of the matter.
  • (11) Brandis defended Heydon in typically florid terms on Thursday: “He has an absolutely stainless reputation for punctilious integrity.” Yet this was the same man who, in what is regarded as his job application speech at a Quadrant dinner for Mary Gaudron’s vacancy, rather nastily attacked Sir Anthony Mason and the high court under his chief justiceship.
  • (12) Two obligatory conditions of effective surgery are emphasized: punctilious performance of all the particulars of the operation and postoperative cytostatic therapy.
  • (13) "Well, Andrew," he says, in that punctiliously courteous way Americans have of employing your name as if it's an honorific, "right at the moment, I'm chief justice of the Nevada Supreme Court."
  • (14) But the government has defended both the commission and the commissioner, with the attorney general, George Brandis, saying Heydon had an “absolutely stainless reputation for punctilious integrity” and his withdrawal from the event should be the end of the matter.