carnival
/ˈkɑːnɪvəl//ˈkɑɹnɪvəl/
carnival noun: any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.
Noun (1)
carnival (plural carnivals)
- Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.
- Carnival of Brazil
- Venice Carnival
- A festive occasion marked by parades and sometimes special foods and other entertainment.
- Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle...2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36
- A traveling amusement park, called a funfair in British English.
- We all got to ride the merry-go-round when they brought their carnival to town.
- When the carnival came to town, every one wanted some cotton candy.
- A context in which transgression or inversion of the social order is given temporary license. Derived from the work of Mikhail Bakhtin.
- The social environment contains the ambiguous traces of carnival: it resists the ideology of capitalism and, at the same time, reproduces the capitalist social order.2010, Gulnara Karimova, “Jackass, South Park, and 'Everyday' Culture”, in Studies in Popular Culture, volume 33, page 37
- A gaudily chaotic situation.
- a carnival of idiocy
Verb
carnival (third-person singular simple present carnivals, present participle (US) carnivaling or (UK) carnivalling, simple past and past participle (US) carnivaled or (UK) carnivalled)
- To participate in a carnival.
- To move about playfully or wildly.
- The spot is a marvel of beauty and taste; and here, where dust and sun carnivaled for so many years, thousands of every class congregate to listen each evening to music discoursed for the amusement of oi polloi.1870 July, “Life in the Mexican Capital”, in The Old Guard, volume VIII, number VII, [New York, N.Y.]: [C. Chauncey Burr & Co.], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 507
- Sitting in the Chevy, Saturday night on Main Street carnivaling around her, she told herself that she understood, that Ross had made a mistake, had pre-arranged this celebration for tonight and thought that his date with her was tomorrow.1983, Alan Stratton, The Hunters, London; Sydney, N.S.W.: Futura, →ISBN, page 161
Proper noun capitalized: Carnival
Carnival
- The season just before the beginning of the Western Christian season of Lent.
Noun (2) capitalized: Carnival
Carnival (countable and uncountable, plural Carnivals)
- Alternative form of carnival; especially in the sense "any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent."
- To the statement above we may, of course, add that a far greater number have never had the “luck” of seeing a Continental Fair;— the Carnivals of Italy, of France,—a Russian Fair,—or the Carnivals and Jahrmarkts of Germany.1873 April, R. H. Horne, The Great Fairs and Markets of Europe, John Holmes Agnew, Walter Hilliard Bidwell (editors), The Eclectic Magazine, New Series Volume 17: January—June 1873, page 436
carnival meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
carnival in Hindi
- festive occasion marked by parades
- कार्निवल kārnival
carnival in Marathi
- कार्निव्हल, कार्निवल, कार्निव्हलला
carnival in Urdu
- کارنیول, کارنیوال, کارنیال
carnival in Bengali
- festive occasion marked by parades
- কার্নিভাল karnibhal
More languagesFewer languages
- carnival in Telugu
- జాతర jātara
- carnival in Malayalam
- കാർണിവൽ, കാർണിവെൽ
- carnival in Kannada
- ಕಾರ್ನೀವಲ್, ಕಾರ್ನಿವಲ್
- carnival in Gujarati
- કાર્નિવલ, કાર્નીવલ, કાર્નિવાલ
- carnival in Odia
- କାର୍ନିଭାଲ, କାର୍ନିଭାଲ୍, କାର୍ଣ୍ଣିବଲ୍
- carnival in Nepali
- कार्निवल, कार्निभल, कार्निभाल
- carnival in Tagalog
- karnabal
- carnival in Arabic
- كَرْنَفَال karnavāl
- carnival in Persian
- کارناوال kârnâvâl, کارنوال kârnevâl
- carnival in Thai
- เทศกาล têet-sà-gaan
- carnival in Vietnamese
- hội hóa trang, hội trá hình, các-na-van
Examples of carnival in a sentence
- The carnival games were unfairly difficult, and hardly anybody won a prize.
- If the town doesn't have a nearby fairgrounds, then any sizeable empty field will do for a carnival.
- The carnival game involved shooting down tin cans.
Forms of carnival
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | carnivals |
| plural | Carnivals |
| alternative form (obsolete) | carnaval |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | carnivals |
| present participle US | carnivaling |
| present participle UK | carnivalling |
| past participle US | carnivaled |
| past US | carnivaled |
| past participle UK | carnivalled |
| past UK | carnivalled |
Origin of 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.
See carnival.
Words formed from carnival
Questions about carnival
- What does carnival mean?
- Carnival means any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.
- What is carnival in Hindi?
- Carnival in Hindi is कार्निवल (kārnival). See Carnival meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is carnival?
- Carnival can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce carnival?
- Carnival is pronounced /ˈkɑːnɪvəl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of carnival?
- The plural of carnival is carnivals.
Words near carnival in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: carnival (page history and authors); Carnival (page history and authors); carnival (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); carnival (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); carnival (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); carnival (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); carnival (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); carnival (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); carnival (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-carnival.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-carnival.wav.
Cite this entry: “carnival.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/carnival. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.