carnival

carnival — noun

1. a large yearly public celebration in a town or city where people dress up in col

1.nounB2
Definition

a large yearly public celebration in a town or city where people dress up in colourful clothes, dance to music, and enjoy parades and street parties

Example

The streets of Rio are full of dancers and music during the annual carnival.

annual carnival as a yearly event

Leila made her own costume for the school carnival parade.

carnival + noun modifier: carnival parade

Common collocations
  • hold a carnival
  • carnival parade
  • carnival costume
  • annual carnival
  • street carnival
Synonyms
  • festival

    broader term; a festival can be about music, film, or religion, while a carnival specifically involves street celebration with costumes and parades

  • celebration

    more general; carnival implies a larger, organized public event

  • Mardi Gras

    a specific carnival celebration that takes place just before Lent, especially in New Orleans

Grammar Patterns

carnival + noun (as modifier): carnival parade, carnival costume

Usage Note

Often capitalized (Carnival) when referring to specific named events such as the Rio Carnival or the Notting Hill Carnival. As an uncountable noun it refers to the season or general activity ('It's carnival this weekend.')

Common Mistakes

We went to the carnival festival
We went to the carnival.
carnival already describes a festival, so adding 'festival' is redundant.
Carnival is only about eating and drinking.
Carnival involves music, dancing, and costumes as well as food and drink.
the word covers the whole celebration, not just eating.

2. a travelling outdoor entertainment with exciting rides, prize games, and food st

2.nounB1
Definition

a travelling outdoor entertainment with exciting rides, prize games, and food stalls, usually set up on a piece of open land for a short period

Example

The carnival set up a giant Ferris wheel and bumper cars on the school field.

typical travelling carnival — rides set up on open land

Priya won a stuffed bear by throwing rings onto bottles at the carnival.

Common collocations
  • carnival rides
  • carnival games
  • travelling carnival
  • carnival comes to town
  • carnival worker
Synonyms
  • funfair

    chiefly British English; specifically emphasizes the rides and sideshow games

  • fair

    broader term in American English; a fair may also include agricultural exhibitions or competitions

  • amusement park

    a permanent site with rides, not a travelling one

Usage Note

In British English, this sense is also called a funfair. The American equivalent is often a fair or carnival, though American English also uses traveling carnival. The rides at this kind of carnival are often called fairground rides.

Common Mistakes

I went to the carnival to watch the parade.' (if you mean rides)
I went to the carnival to try the bumper cars and eat hot dogs.
sense 2 is about rides and games, not a street parade.

3. a community gathering held outdoors, organized by a school, church, or local gro

3.nounB1
Definition

a community gathering held outdoors, organized by a school, church, or local group to raise money or bring neighbours together, with games, food stalls, and small competitions

Example

The school carnival raised enough money to buy new books for the library.

school carnival — common collocation for fundraising event

Hana baked cakes for the stall at her village's summer carnival.

Common collocations
  • school carnival
  • church carnival
  • summer carnival
  • charity carnival
  • village carnival
Synonyms
  • fête

    chiefly British English; a smaller outdoor event, often with similar activities and held by a local community

  • fair

    used in some contexts for community fundraising events, especially in American English

  • bazaar

    often held indoors, with goods for sale, and sometimes a stronger emphasis on shopping

Usage Note

This sense overlaps with the American English word 'carnival' (sense 2) in some contexts, but differs in that sense 3 is chiefly about community fundraising and small local fun, not large commercial rides. British English often calls this type a fête.

Common Mistakes

The charity carnival had a giant roller coaster.' (too large for a school event)
The charity carnival had cake stalls, a tombola, and a penalty shoot-out.
community carnivals usually have smaller activities than travelling funfairs.
Idioms

a carnival of something

idiom

a lively or colourful collection or display of different things, often used in a slightly negative way to suggest too much happening at once

The market was a carnival of shouting traders, barking dogs, and blaring music.

Word family

  • carnivalesque
    adjectiveC2
  • carnival-goer
    nounC1
  • carnivalistic
    adjectiveC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Festival is the broadest of these words — it covers any organized series of events (music festival, film festival, religious festival) and does not by itself suggest street processions or costumes. Mardi Gras is a specific carnival celebration tied to the Christian calendar, taking place on the day before Lent begins; it is most famously associated with New Orleans but also occurs in other cities. Celebration is a more general term for any act of marking a happy occasion and does not imply a large organized public event. Fair overlaps with carnival in senses 2 and 3 but is less common for the street-parade meaning: a fair typically involves stalls and competitions rather than costumed parades and dancing in the streets. When referring to the large street festival with costumes and music (sense 1), carnival is the most precise word; festival works as a hypernym but loses the specific cultural associations of costume, parade, and pre-Lent tradition.

festival ↗Mardi Grascelebration ↗fair ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • carnival atmosphere
  • carnival season
  • carnival spirit

Phrases

  • carnival of colours
  • carnival of sounds

Prepositions

  • at a carnival
  • during carnival
  • for carnival

Etymology

LatinItalianFrenchEnglish

The word carnival comes from the Italian carnevale, which may go back to the Latin phrase carnem levare ('to remove meat'), referring to the Christian tradition of feasting and celebration just before the fasting period of Lent, when people would give up meat. Over time the word expanded from this specific pre-Lent festival to describe any large public celebration with costumes, music, and dancing, and later to travelling amusement events.