# carnival

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈkɑːnɪvəl/ · frequency rank #8,765

## Definitions
1. Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.
2. A festive occasion marked by parades and sometimes special foods and other entertainment.
3. A traveling amusement park, called a funfair in British English.
4. A context in which transgression or inversion of the social order is given temporary license. Derived from the work of Mikhail Bakhtin.
5. A gaudily chaotic situation.

## Etymology
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.

## Easily confused with
- **carnal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/carnal-vs-carnival)
- **cardinal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cardinal-vs-carnival)
- **cannibal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cannibal-vs-carnival)

## Common misspellings (12)
`acrnival`, `canrival`, `carinval`, `carniavl`, `carnivall`, `carnivla`, `carnivval`, `carnnival`, `carnvial`, `carrnival`, `ccarnival`, `cranival`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/carnival