Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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name
The season just before the beginning of the Western Christian season of Lent.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A festive occasion marked by parades and sometimes special foods and other entertainment.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A traveling amusement park, called a funfair in British English.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A context in which transgression or inversion of the social order is given temporary license. Derived from the work of Mikhail Bakhtin.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: human-sciences, sciences, social-science, sociology
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A gaudily chaotic situation.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Alternative form of carnival; especially in the sense "any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent."
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, alternative, countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To participate in a carnival.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal, rare
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To move about playfully or wildly.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: literary
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a festival marked by merrymaking and processions
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: festival, fete
Narrower terms: Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday
noun
a traveling show; having sideshows and rides and games of skill etc.
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: fair, funfair
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: show
noun
a frenetic disorganized (and often comic) disturbance suggestive of a large public entertainment
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: circus
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: disturbance
History
See carnival.
From Middle French carnaval, from Italian carnevale, possibly from the Latin phrase carnem levāmen (“meat dismissal”). Other scholars suggest Latin carnuālia (“meat-based country feast”) or carrus nāvālis (“boat wagon; float”) instead. Doublet of carnaval.
Across languages
105 source translations are retained for this English entry.
