"big tent" meaning in English

See big tent in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˌbɪɡ ˈtɛnt/ [General-American, Received-Pronunciation] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-big tent.wav [Southern-England] Forms: big tents [plural]
Rhymes: -ɛnt Etymology: From big (adjective) + tent, originally referring to a large tent set up to hold a public event attended by many people such as a circus or a religious meeting. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|big|tent|notext=1|pos1=adjective|type=endocentric}} big (adjective) + tent Head templates: {{en-noun}} big tent (plural big tents)
  1. (idiomatic, also attributive) A group, philosophy, or social or political movement that encompasses or seeks to attract a broad range of constituents or members, or views. Tags: also, attributive, idiomatic Synonyms: broad church, catch-all, big-tent [attributive] Related terms: catholic [adjective], ecumenism Translations (group, philosophy, or social or political movement that encompasses or seeks to attract a broad range of constituents or members, or views): kansanpuolue (english: political party) (Finnish), yleispuolue (Finnish)

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for big tent meaning in English (4.7kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "big",
        "3": "tent",
        "notext": "1",
        "pos1": "adjective",
        "type": "endocentric"
      },
      "expansion": "big (adjective) + tent",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From big (adjective) + tent, originally referring to a large tent set up to hold a public event attended by many people such as a circus or a religious meeting.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "big tents",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "big tent (plural big tents)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English endocentric compounds",
          "parents": [
            "Endocentric compounds",
            "Compound terms",
            "Terms by etymology"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1930 October, Eugene Garret Bewkes, “Humanism and Ethics”, in James H[ayden] Tufts, editor, The International Journal of Ethics: A Quarterly Devoted to the Advancement of Ethical Knowledge and Practice, volume XLI, number 1, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, pages 14–15",
          "text": "Humanism is an expansive trisyllable, a veritable \"big-tent\" of a word, sheltering many varieties of performance under its spreading canvas.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1964 September 9, “Goldwater endorsed in Mississippi”, in Graham M. Dean, editor, Porterville Evening Recorder, number 395, Porterville, Calif.: Graham M. Dean, →OCLC, page 1",
          "text": "The Democratic governor of Mississippi, Paul Johnson, has endorsed Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater. […] He said he is confident that the majority of Mississippians \"Have no desire to get under Lyndon Johnson's big tent and to share the company already assembled there.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1996 September 8, “Why Cowboys Became Kings”, in Newsweek, New York, N.Y.: Newsweek, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-02-26",
          "text": "They are not a slice of Americana, as we usually say, but rather, a broad brush of it. While most of our successful sports franchises display some distinct personality, only the [Dallas] Cowboys offer the big tent.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A group, philosophy, or social or political movement that encompasses or seeks to attract a broad range of constituents or members, or views."
      ],
      "id": "en-big_tent-en-noun-WVlYgT-l",
      "links": [
        [
          "group",
          "group#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "philosophy",
          "philosophy"
        ],
        [
          "social",
          "social#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "political",
          "political#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "movement",
          "movement"
        ],
        [
          "encompass",
          "encompass"
        ],
        [
          "seeks",
          "seek#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "attract",
          "attract"
        ],
        [
          "broad",
          "broad#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "range",
          "range#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "constituents",
          "constituent#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "members",
          "member#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "views",
          "view#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, also attributive) A group, philosophy, or social or political movement that encompasses or seeks to attract a broad range of constituents or members, or views."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "adjective"
          ],
          "word": "catholic"
        },
        {
          "word": "ecumenism"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "broad church"
        },
        {
          "word": "catch-all"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "attributive"
          ],
          "word": "big-tent"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "also",
        "attributive",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "english": "political party",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "group, philosophy, or social or political movement that encompasses or seeks to attract a broad range of constituents or members, or views",
          "word": "kansanpuolue"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "group, philosophy, or social or political movement that encompasses or seeks to attract a broad range of constituents or members, or views",
          "word": "yleispuolue"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌbɪɡ ˈtɛnt/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American",
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɛnt"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-big tent.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/85/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-big_tent.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-big_tent.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/85/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-big_tent.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-big_tent.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "big tent"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "big",
        "3": "tent",
        "notext": "1",
        "pos1": "adjective",
        "type": "endocentric"
      },
      "expansion": "big (adjective) + tent",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From big (adjective) + tent, originally referring to a large tent set up to hold a public event attended by many people such as a circus or a religious meeting.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "big tents",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "big tent (plural big tents)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "adjective"
      ],
      "word": "catholic"
    },
    {
      "word": "ecumenism"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English adjective-noun compound nouns",
        "English compound terms",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English endocentric compounds",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Rhymes:English/ɛnt",
        "Rhymes:English/ɛnt/2 syllables"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1930 October, Eugene Garret Bewkes, “Humanism and Ethics”, in James H[ayden] Tufts, editor, The International Journal of Ethics: A Quarterly Devoted to the Advancement of Ethical Knowledge and Practice, volume XLI, number 1, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, pages 14–15",
          "text": "Humanism is an expansive trisyllable, a veritable \"big-tent\" of a word, sheltering many varieties of performance under its spreading canvas.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1964 September 9, “Goldwater endorsed in Mississippi”, in Graham M. Dean, editor, Porterville Evening Recorder, number 395, Porterville, Calif.: Graham M. Dean, →OCLC, page 1",
          "text": "The Democratic governor of Mississippi, Paul Johnson, has endorsed Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater. […] He said he is confident that the majority of Mississippians \"Have no desire to get under Lyndon Johnson's big tent and to share the company already assembled there.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1996 September 8, “Why Cowboys Became Kings”, in Newsweek, New York, N.Y.: Newsweek, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-02-26",
          "text": "They are not a slice of Americana, as we usually say, but rather, a broad brush of it. While most of our successful sports franchises display some distinct personality, only the [Dallas] Cowboys offer the big tent.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A group, philosophy, or social or political movement that encompasses or seeks to attract a broad range of constituents or members, or views."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "group",
          "group#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "philosophy",
          "philosophy"
        ],
        [
          "social",
          "social#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "political",
          "political#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "movement",
          "movement"
        ],
        [
          "encompass",
          "encompass"
        ],
        [
          "seeks",
          "seek#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "attract",
          "attract"
        ],
        [
          "broad",
          "broad#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "range",
          "range#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "constituents",
          "constituent#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "members",
          "member#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "views",
          "view#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, also attributive) A group, philosophy, or social or political movement that encompasses or seeks to attract a broad range of constituents or members, or views."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "broad church"
        },
        {
          "word": "catch-all"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "also",
        "attributive",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌbɪɡ ˈtɛnt/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American",
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɛnt"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-big tent.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/85/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-big_tent.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-big_tent.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/85/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-big_tent.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-big_tent.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "attributive"
      ],
      "word": "big-tent"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "english": "political party",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "group, philosophy, or social or political movement that encompasses or seeks to attract a broad range of constituents or members, or views",
      "word": "kansanpuolue"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "group, philosophy, or social or political movement that encompasses or seeks to attract a broad range of constituents or members, or views",
      "word": "yleispuolue"
    }
  ],
  "word": "big tent"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.