Cdn. Gage dictionary: 'exhibit' applies particularly to an object or
collection of things put on view at a fair, exhibition or other public
show. 'exhibition' applies to a public show of works of art, rare objects
of any kind, lace, commercial objects, etc. (ok, I added the word 'lace').
I would say the meaning of the word exhibit tends to slide around a bit. Generally, an exhibition is a larger thing and an exhibit is one bit of it, but whether an exhibit is one thing or a group of similar things depends on the scope and scale of the exhibition.
For example, each summer in Vancouver the Pacific National Exhibition is held. It has included such diverse things as:
Talent shows (amateur: different kinds of folk dancing, singing, etc)
Livestock shows (heavy horses, cattle, sheep, chickens, llamas, ...)
Lumbermen's contests (in themselves an exhibition of lumbermen's skills such as log rolling, post climbing, axe throwing ...)
Demolition derbys
Horse shows (dressage, jumping, barrel racing: anything that will fit nicely into the arena)
Craft shows (woodworking, apple dolls, tole painting, crochet, lacemaking ...)
Trade Shows (sales displays of hot tubs, sewing machines, and everything in between, as well as hawkers "It slices! It dices")
A midway (roller coaster, mad mouse, ferris wheel, booths where you try to knock down the bottles etc)
And an enormous amount of food.
Now, *that's* an Exhibition ;-) Any of the smaller shows in the exhibition may be called an exhibit (Let's go see the Craft exhibit) but generally an exhibit has static items (a display of crafts) rather than any live entertainment value like the lumbermen's contests. And each little item in, say, the craft show (or craft exhibit) would be called ... wait for it ... an item in the craft show.
But that's because exhibit has already been used. If the entire Craft show, but *only* the crafts, were being shown at a specialized location, then the entire show would be called an craft exhibition and the individual types of crafts (quilting, crochet, etc) would be called exhibits. Again, an individual item would be just called an item.
But if you got even smaller, and just had a show of, say, lacemaking, then one individual item *might* be called an exhibit, provided there weren't any other categories in between. If you had divided your show up into Point Laces and Sectional Laces, each of those would be an exhibit ...
This could go on forever ;-)
Adele North Vancouver, BC (west coast of Canada)
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