Word.ws English Dictionary

jack-o'-lantern

Syllables: jack-o'-lan·ternUK/ˈdʒæk.əʊˌlæn.tən//ˈdʒæk.oʊˌlæn.təɹn/

jack-o'-lantern noun: a carved pumpkin whose top and stem have been cut out and interior removed, leaving a hollow shell that is then decorated to represent a face, illuminated from within by a candle. It is a symbol of Halloween.

jack-o'-lantern: a carved pumpkin whose top and stem have been cut out and interior removed, leaving a hollow shell...
Image: Toby Ord, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

jack-o'-lantern (plural jack-o'-lanterns)

  1. A carved pumpkin whose top and stem have been cut out and interior removed, leaving a hollow shell that is then decorated to represent a face, illuminated from within by a candle. It is a symbol of Halloween.
    • He had a jocose jack-o'-lantern grin, big crooked nicotine-stained teeth, and a full droopy dark moustache and wiry whiskers hiding a weak chin. (attributive use)2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age: A Romance, paperback edition, page 218
    1. A similar item made from a turnip.
  2. (archaic) A will o' the wisp.
    • [Newspaper speculations] supplying so many more jack-o'-lanterns to the future historian1871, James Russell Lowell, “My Study Windows”, in My Garden Acquaintance

jack-o'-lantern meaning in Arabic, Malay and Thai

jack-o'-lantern in Arabic

carved pumpkin
قرعة مضيئة

jack-o'-lantern in Malay

carved pumpkin
tanglung labu

jack-o'-lantern in Thai

carved pumpkin
แจ็กโอแลนเทิร์น

Synonyms of jack-o'-lantern

All synonyms of jack-o'-lantern

Forms of jack-o'-lantern

pluraljack-o'-lanterns
alternative formjack-o-lantern
alternative formjack o'lantern
alternative formJack O'Lantern

Origin of jack-o'-lantern

Originally, a night watchman who carried a lantern (originally made from a turnip; see neep lantern). See Jack. First attested as a term for ignis fatuus in English folklore in the 1660s, mostly in East Anglia but also in southwestern England. The sense of a carved pumpkin (sense 1) is first attested in 1834.

Questions about jack-o'-lantern

What does jack-o'-lantern mean?
Jack-o'-lantern means a carved pumpkin whose top and stem have been cut out and interior removed, leaving a hollow shell that is then decorated to represent a face, illuminated from within by a candle. It is a symbol of Halloween.
What is jack-o'-lantern in Arabic?
Jack-o'-lantern in Arabic is قرعة مضيئة. See Jack-o'-lantern meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is jack-o'-lantern?
Jack-o'-lantern is a noun.
How do you pronounce jack-o'-lantern?
Jack-o'-lantern is pronounced /ˈdʒæk.əʊˌlæn.tən/ (UK).
What is the plural of jack-o'-lantern?
The plural of jack-o'-lantern is jack-o'-lanterns.

Words near jack-o'-lantern in the dictionary

  1. jack-knife barbers
  2. jack-knifed
  3. jack-knifes
  4. jack-knifing
  5. jack-knives
  6. jack-o'-lantern
  7. jack-o'-lanterns
  8. jack-o-lantern
  9. jack-o-lanterns
  10. jack-of-all-trades
  11. jack-of-all-trades, master of none

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jack-o'-lantern (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-us-jack-o'-lantern.ogg, en-au-jack-o'-lantern.ogg.

Cite this entry: “jack-o'-lantern.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jack-o%27-lantern. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.