Definition

1. Noun:
   • A traveling amusement show: A carnival is a traveling entertainment event that typically features rides, games of skill, sideshows, and other attractions.
   • A festive season or event: A carnival is a public festival, often held before Lent, characterized by merrymaking, processions, music, dancing, and often elaborate costumes and masks.
   • A scene of lively, chaotic enjoyment: Figuratively, a carnival can describe any occasion or atmosphere that is marked by a frenetic, disorganized, and often exuberant or chaotic spirit of celebration.

Usage and Examples

• Referring to a traveling amusement show:

  • We went to the carnival and rode the Ferris wheel.
  • The carnival set up its tents on the edge of town every summer.

• Referring to a festive season or public celebration:

  • Rio de Janeiro is famous for its annual Carnival.
  • The city's streets were filled with music and dancers during the carnival.

• Used figuratively to describe a chaotic, lively scene:

  • The office party turned into a complete carnival.
  • The political convention was a carnival of competing ideas and loud speeches.

Advanced Usage and Nuances

• "Carnival atmosphere": A phrase used to describe a place or event that has the lively, colorful, and slightly chaotic feeling of a carnival.

  • The market had a real carnival atmosphere with all the noise and colors.

• "Carnivalesque" (adjective): Having the qualities of a carnival; characterized by humor, chaos, the subversion of ordinary rules, and the mixing of social hierarchies. This is a more literary or academic term.

  • The novel's carnivalesque scenes critique the seriousness of society.

Variants and Related Words

• Carnivalize (verb, rare): To give a carnival-like character to something; to turn into a carnival.

  • The artists sought to carnivalize the traditional gallery space.

• Pre-Lenten Carnival: Specifies the traditional carnival held in the period before Lent in Christian cultures.

Synonyms

• Fair: (Especially for the traveling show sense).
• Festival: (Especially for the public celebration sense).
• Fete: A festive celebration or entertainment.
• Mardi Gras: Specifically refers to the carnival celebration on Shrove Tuesday.

Idioms and Common Phrases

• A carnival of...: Used to indicate an excessive or chaotic display of a particular thing.
  • The debate was a carnival of insults.
  • The art exhibition was a carnival of color.

Notes on Different Meanings

The core meanings are distinct but connected by the themes of public celebration, entertainment, and temporary suspension of normal order. The traveling show meaning is common in American English. The pre-Lenten festival meaning is historically and culturally significant in many parts of the world, such as Brazil, Italy (Venice), and New Orleans. The figurative meaning extends these ideas to any lively, chaotic event.

Noun

1. a traveling show; having sideshows and rides and games of skill etc.
2. a frenetic disorganized (and often comic) disturbance suggestive of a large public entertainment
   • it was so funny it was a circus
   • the whole occasion had a carnival atmosphere
3. a festival marked by merrymaking and processions