mardi-gras
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
10 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "mardi-gras", 10-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "mardi-gras" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "mardi-gras" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
Mardi Gras is aEnglishname. It means: The day when traditionally all fat and meat in the house were finished up, before Christians were banned from eating them during Lent, which commenced the following day on Ash Wednesday. Pronounced /ˈmɑːdi ɡɹɑː/.
Compare similar words
See how Mardi Gras compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Mardi Gras |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Name |
| IPA | /ˈmɑːdi ɡɹɑː/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Mardi Gras is 10 letters long, classified as aname, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɑːdi ɡɹɑː/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for Mardi Gras in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French mardi gras (literally “fat Tuesday”). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is Mardi Gras, spelled M-A-R-D-I- -G-R-A-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The day when traditionally all fat and meat in the house were finished up, before Christians were banned from eating them during Lent, which commenced the following day on Ash Wednesday.
- 2The last day of a carnival, traditionally the celebration immediately before the start of Lent when joy would be out of place for Christians.
- 3A carnival.
Etymology
Borrowed from French mardi gras (literally “fat Tuesday”).
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "Mardi Gras"?
What does "Mardi Gras" mean?
How do you pronounce "Mardi Gras"?
What is the origin of the word "Mardi Gras"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter M in our English index: