groundbreaking ceremony
- noun
- /ˈɡraʊndˌbreɪkɪŋ ˈsɜːrɪˌmoʊni/
- Formal
- Immediately following the game, players ushered fans to the nearby Armstrong Physical Education Building to witness a groundbreaking ceremony for the facility's upcoming renovation and expansion.
- hold a groundbreaking ceremony
- is scheduled for a groundbreaking ceremony
Examples
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Chadron State College fans gather at the southwest corner of the Armstrong Physical Education Building for the groundbreaking ceremony.
Blog text (13) -
A groundbreaking ceremony was held on 18 September 2000 to begin the reconnection of the Seoul-Sinuiju railway.
Academic text (2002) -
Production in the plant started in 1997 following the groundbreaking ceremony in 1995.
Blog text (33) -
The site was cleared early the next year, and a groundbreaking ceremony took place on May 17, 1992.
Blog text (25) -
It was a groundbreaking ceremony for a new factory.
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Indeed, the United Arab Emirates held a groundbreaking ceremony for its first nuclear power plant just days after the Fukushima accident.
Academic text (2011) -
After reaching the campaign goal of $750,000, the JCC held a groundbreaking ceremony on June 1, 1952.
Blog text (25) -
Says U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, who officiated at the groundbreaking ceremony, "SciTEC will stimulate and challenge students as it shows them exciting discoveries and opportunities for learning."
Academic text (1995) -
Good afternoon, I'm Darryl Forrest, here with Mayor Sak Yamamoto of the city of Carson for the groundbreaking ceremonies of the new sheriff's station being built here in Carson.
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The City of San Marcos is holding a groundbreaking ceremony at 9 a.m.
Synonyms
A formal event that follows traditional rules for a special occasion
The official start of an event or activity
A ceremony that marks the start of construction by digging the first bit of soil
Showing new ideas or marking the start of building work
An event that marks the official start of building work
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly compositional: 'groundbreaking' (literally breaking ground, i.e., starting construction) modifies 'ceremony' (a formal event), so a learner who knows those constituent meanings can infer it marks the start of construction. This pattern is transparent and matches common cross-linguistic ways of naming start-of-construction events, so it should be immediately understandable to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Groundbreaking ceremony comes from the simple act of breaking the ground, when people use shovels to turn the first soil at a building site. That's why the phrase means 'a formal event to mark the start of construction'.