Word.ws English Dictionary

bacchanalian

/ˌbækəˈneɪli.ən/

bacchanalian is the alternative letter-case form of Bacchanalian.

Adjective capitalized: Bacchanalian

Bacchanalian (not comparable)

  1. (Greek, Roman) Of or pertaining to the festival of Bacchus, relating to or given to reveling and drunkenness.
    • Near-synonyms: bacchic, bacchian; Dionysiac, Dionysian; dionysiac, dionysian
    • Even Bacchanalian madness has its charms.1782, William Cowper, The Progress of Error
  2. (broadly) Of or resembling wild or unrestrained revelry.
    • The dancing and shouting of the children around the fire had become even more bacchanalian.1949, George R. Stewart, Part II, Chapter 6, in Earth Abides

Noun capitalized: Bacchanalian

Bacchanalian (plural Bacchanalians)

  1. A bacchanal; a drunken reveler.
    • With the help of a sleepy waiter, Little Billee got the bacchanalian into his room and lit his candle for him, and, disengaging himself from his maudlin embraces, left him to wallow in solitude.1894, George du Maurier, “Part Third”, in Trilby: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 165

Synonyms of bacchanalian

Forms of bacchanalian

Noun
pluralbacchanalians
pluralBacchanalians
Adjective
alternative formbacchanalian

Origin of bacchanalian

From Bacchanalia + -an.

Words formed from bacchanalian

Questions about bacchanalian

What does bacchanalian mean?
Bacchanalian means of or pertaining to the festival of Bacchus, relating to or given to reveling and drunkenness.
What is bacchanalian the alternative letter-case form of?
Bacchanalian is the alternative letter-case form of Bacchanalian.
What part of speech is bacchanalian?
Bacchanalian can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce bacchanalian?
Bacchanalian is pronounced /ˌbækəˈneɪli.ən/.

Words near bacchanalian in the dictionary

  1. Bacchae
  2. bacchanal
  3. bacchanale
  4. bacchanales
  5. bacchanalia
  6. bacchanalian
  7. bacchanalianism
  8. bacchanalianisms
  9. bacchanalianly
  10. bacchanalians
  11. bacchanalias

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bacchanalian (page history and authors); Bacchanalian (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Bacchanalian.wav.

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