travesty
Syllables: trav·es·ty/ˈtɹæv.ɪs.ti/
travesty noun: an absurd, grotesque, misrepresentative or grossly inferior likeness or imitation.
Noun
travesty (plural travesties)
- An absurd, grotesque, misrepresentative or grossly inferior likeness or imitation.
- A battlefield trial is a travesty of justice.
- The second edition is not a recast, but absolutely a travesty of the first.1845, Thomas De Quincey, William Godwin
- A pastiche, parody, or stylistic imitation; a burlesque literary or artistic imitation (typically of a more serious work).
- An appalling event, situation or outcome (especially in relation to another outcome to which it is grossly inferior).
- Spurs survived the scare - and such was their domination after the break that it would have been a travesty had Arsenal escaped Wembley, hosting a Premier League record attendance of 83,222, with a draw.2018 February 10, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham Hotspur 1 - 0 Arsenal”, in BBC
Verb
travesty (third-person singular simple present travesties, present participle travestying, simple past and past participle travestied)
- To make a travesty of; to parody.
travesty meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
travesty in Hindi
- absurd or grotesque misrepresentation
- विडंबना viḍambanā
travesty in Urdu
- بہروپ, سوانگ, بہروپ کرنا, سوانگ بھرنا
travesty in Bengali
- ট্র্যাভেস্টি
travesty in Malayalam
- ഹാസ്യാനുകരണം നടത്തുക
More languagesFewer languages
- travesty in Kannada
- ಅಣಕು, ಅಣಕ, ನಗೆಪಾಟಲು ಮಾರ್ಪು, ವಿಕಟಾನುಕರಣೆ
- travesty in Nepali
- ट्रावेस्टी
Examples of travesty in a sentence
- There was a particularly horrible travesty of extreme unction called the ‘endura’.
- After the travesty of Project Reason’s Bible misinfographic, I had a look around: are there many good Bible infographics out there?
- This is a travesty of the idea of a quale.
Synonyms of travesty
Antonyms
Forms of travesty
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | travesties |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | travesties |
| present participle | travestying |
| past participle | travestied |
| past | travestied |
Origin of travesty
From French travesti (“disguised, burlesqued”), past participle of travestir (“to disguise”), borrowed from Italian travestire (“to dress up, disguise”), from tra- (“across”) + vestire (“to dress”), from Latin vestiō (“to clothe, dress”), from Proto-Italic *westis (“clothing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéstis (“dressing”) from verbal root *wes- (“to dress, clothe”); cognate to English wear. Doublet of travesti.
Words formed from travesty
Questions about travesty
- What does travesty mean?
- Travesty means an absurd, grotesque, misrepresentative or grossly inferior likeness or imitation.
- What is travesty in Hindi?
- Travesty in Hindi is विडंबना (viḍambanā). See Travesty meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is travesty?
- Travesty can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce travesty?
- Travesty is pronounced /ˈtɹæv.ɪs.ti/.
- What is the plural of travesty?
- The plural of travesty is travesties.
Words near travesty in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: travesty (page history and authors); travesty (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); travesty (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); travesty (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); travesty (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); travesty (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: En-us-travesty.oga.
Cite this entry: “travesty.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/travesty. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.