festival
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A special public celebration or series of events, usually joyful
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fehstuhvuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɛstəvəl
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
An event or series of special events centred on the celebration or promotion of some theme or aspect of the community, often held at regular intervals.
In mythology, a set of celebrations in the honour of a god.
biblical
A feast or feast day.
adjective
Pertaining to a feast or feast day; festive. (Now only as the noun used attributively.)
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An event or series of special events centred on the celebration or promotion of some theme or aspect of the community, often held at regular intervals.
Used this way, festival is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use festival
- “The town holds a lively music festival every August.”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.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem in 165 BC.
A festival having religious significance.
A cinematic festival that features films (usually films produced during the past year).
A festival that features performances by jazz artists.
A festival having religious significance.
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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.