1
: a minor show offered in addition to a main exhibition (as of a circus)
2
: an incidental diversion or spectacle
Examples of sideshow in a Sentence
Their disagreement is just a political sideshow when compared to the real issues at hand.
Recent Examples on the Web
The arrests of nine people on the bridge — along with two rally organizers a couple days earlier — capped a two-month operation to track down dirt bike and ATV riders suspected of traveling in packs for sideshows and spins across the Bay Area, said Oakland police Chief Jim Beere.
—
Jakob Rodgers, Mercury News, 4 May 2026
For longtime Stockton resident Montie Selmon, sideshows have become a familiar and frustrating part of life.
—Conor McGill, CBS News, 3 May 2026
As a sideshow, Arsenal took umbrage with the pitch at the Metropolitano Stadium, unhappy with the length of the turf and the extent to which it was being watered (people were actually pictured measuring individual blades of grass ahead of kick-off, above).
—Phil Hay, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2026
That is why a growing body of work now treats blockade, quarantine and graduated coercion not as sideshows to invasion, but as the more plausible opening chapters of the war.
—Micah McCartney, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for sideshow
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Jakob Rodgers, Mercury News, 4 May 2026
For longtime Stockton resident Montie Selmon, sideshows have become a familiar and frustrating part of life.
—Conor McGill, CBS News, 3 May 2026
As a sideshow, Arsenal took umbrage with the pitch at the Metropolitano Stadium, unhappy with the length of the turf and the extent to which it was being watered (people were actually pictured measuring individual blades of grass ahead of kick-off, above).
—Phil Hay, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2026
That is why a growing body of work now treats blockade, quarantine and graduated coercion not as sideshows to invasion, but as the more plausible opening chapters of the war.
—Micah McCartney, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for sideshow
Cite this Entry
“Sideshow.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sideshow. Accessed 10 May. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
sideshow
noun
side·show
-ˌshō 
: a small show off to the side offered in addition to a main show (as of a circus)
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