Word.ws English Dictionary

carnie

carnie is the alternative spelling of carny.

Meaning of carny

Noun (1)

carny (countable and uncountable, plural carnies)

  1. (countable, informal) A person who works in a carnival (often one who uses exaggerated showmanship or fraud).
    • The Reverend Foster, self-ordained—or directly ordained by God, depending on authority cited—had an instinct for the pulse of his times stronger than that of a skilled carnie sizing up a mark.1961, Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land, New York: Avon, →OCLC, page 276
    Synonyms:
    showie
  2. (uncountable) The jargon used by carnival workers.
  3. (countable, informal) A carnival.

Noun (2)

carny

  1. (dialectal) Flattery.

See all 5 meanings of carny

Noun

carnie (plural carnies)

  1. (derogatory, slang) Synonym of carnist.
    Synonyms:
    carnist

Synonyms of carnie

Forms of carnie

pluralcarnies

Origin of carnie

Clipping of carnival + -ie (“diminutive, hypocoristic suffix”).

Questions about carnie

What does carnie mean?
Carnie means synonym of carnist.
What is carnie the alternative spelling of?
Carnie is the alternative spelling of carny.
What part of speech is carnie?
Carnie is a noun.
What is the plural of carnie?
The plural of carnie is carnies.

Words near carnie in the dictionary

  1. carnicerias
  2. Carnicero
  3. carnid
  4. carnidazole
  5. carnids
  6. carnie
  7. carnied
  8. carnies
  9. carniferous
  10. carnifex
  11. carnifexes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: carnie (page history and authors); carny (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-carnie.ogg.

Cite this entry: “carnie.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/carnie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.