carnival

IPA: kˈɑrnʌvʌɫ

Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.
A festive occasion marked by parades and sometimes special foods and other entertainment.
(US) A traveling amusement park, called a funfair in British English.
(sociology) A context in which transgression or inversion of the social order is given temporary license. Derived from the work of Mikhail Bakhtin.
The season just before the beginning of the Western Christian season of Lent.
Alternative form of carnival; especially in the sense "any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent." [Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.]

Examples of "carnival" in Sentences

A small walk-up eatery that serves what I call carnival-type food.
“I haven’t seen Ingrid since the carnival,” she said, stressing the word carnival to jolt his memory.
"There's been quite a bit of what we call carnival revival," said Darren Tristano, a restaurant expert at market researcher Technomic.
For one of the boys, the carnival is always the best thing to happen all year; the other boy is a little afraid of the carnival's presence.
Baker said he has a bone to pick with people who use the term "carnival barker" and admitted to being shocked when the President singled out his industry.
However, Zigun -- who says he voted for Obama in 2008 and will probably support him again in 2012 -- does believe the President misspoke when he used the term "carnival barker."
Mr. Martival, however, appears to have thought otherwise, for one night, after what they call their carnival dance here, which every one in the neighborhood had attended, Mr. Martival had the brutality to close his doors against her, and refuse to let her enter the house.