HOW TO PRONOUNCE
carnival
/ˈkɑɹnɪvəl/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:39
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What does carnival mean?
noun
- Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.
- A festive occasion marked by parades and sometimes special foods and other entertainment.
- A traveling amusement park, called a funfair in British English.
More meanings (6)
noun
- A context in which transgression or inversion of the social order is given temporary license. Derived from the work of Mikhail Bakhtin.
- (figuratively) A gaudily chaotic situation.
- Alternative form of carnival; especially in the sense "any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent."
verb
- (literary) To move about playfully or wildly.
- (informal, rare) To participate in a carnival.
proper noun
- The season just before the beginning of the Western Christian season of Lent.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ˈkɑɹnɪvəl/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
There are great, frowning precipices and much falling water, and Nature seem to have held sometime her carnival.
It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend.
More book examples (3)
It was what Bartley Hubbard called "a carnival of fashion and gaiety on the Brighton road," in his account of it.
A little later, the enemy of humanity invites the young friends of his son Montpensier to his chateau for the carnival holiday.
During this high carnival, we lived for the most part under canvass, and had friends from far and near to share our hospitality.