Other forms: solemnities
Solemnity is grave seriousness, or a formal ceremony. With great solemnity, the solemnity of the occasion, observe the solemnities.
The plural means the formal parts of a ceremony, which is the older sense and survives in legal and church language. In the singular it is the mood rather than the event.
1nounsolemnityGrave seriousness, or a formal ceremony.
“The priest spoke with great solemnity as the coffin was lowered into the grave.”
solemnity is a seriousness.
From solemn, from Latin sollemnis, appointed or customary, from sollus, whole.
Latin
sollemnitās
Old French
solemnite
Middle English
solemnity — observance of formality and ceremony
English, today
solemnity
From solemn + ity, from Middle English solemnity (“observance of formality and ceremony”), frequently in the phrases in solemnity, with solemnity, which from Old French solemnite, from Latin sollemnitās, from sollemnis. (Compare solemn.)
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA