cartoon
noun
Simple meaning
A humorous drawing, often with a caption, or a strip of such drawings.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kahrtoonSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kɑɹˈtun
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
comics
A humorous drawing, often with a caption, or a strip of such drawings.
animation
A film made by photographing a series of cartoon drawings to give the illusion of movement when projected in rapid sequence
animation
An animated piece of film which is often but not exclusively humorous.
animation
A cartoon series.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (comics) A humorous drawing, often with a caption, or a strip of such drawings.
Used this way, cartoon is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. Keep it for friendly, informal settings.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Playful and informal
Nearby words
- animated cartoon , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use cartoon
- “The kids love watching the funny cartoon show on Saturday mornings.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A person who draws cartoons.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A sequence of drawings telling a story in a newspaper or comic book.
A film made by photographing a series of cartoon drawings to give the illusion of movement when projected in rapid sequence.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: humorous drawing or often with a caption
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.