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Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras

13 3.4
A festival in New Orleans that has parades, music, masks, and street parties
  • noun
  • /ˈmɑrdi ˈɡrɑ/
translation icon : Mardi Gras
  • The streets of New Orleans come alive during Mardi Gras with colorful floats and lively music.
  • Mardi Gras parade
  • Mardi Gras float
  • celebrate Mardi Gras

Like you on the strip, you on Mardi Gras with Bourbon Street, right.

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Examples

  • New Orleans is a city of festivities: conventions, Mardi Gras balls, graduation ceremonies, entertainment.

    Blog text (5)

  • I'm trying to make it down to Mardi Gras to spend some time with my family in Louisiana.

    Theo Von

  • It's a long way to Mardi Gras, baby.

    Easy Rider (1969)

  • We were in New Orleans, and it was Mardi Gras.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • A little early for Mardi Gras, isn't it?

    JFK (1991)

  • It was once at a Mardi Gras ball.

    Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

  • You know, uh, Mardi Gras didn't actually start in New Orleans?

    October Baby (2011)

  • Local artists are turning Mardi Gras into Yardy Gras with themed outdoor displays inspired by both tradition and pop culture.

  • Every year, millions of people attend Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, filled with parades and vibrant costumes.

  • On Mardi Gras, families gather to enjoy the festivities and indulge in delicious king cake.

Synonyms

festival
vsMardi Gras
268 1.0

A time when people gather to celebrate with food and fun

highlights parades, music, masquerade specific to Shrove Tuesday in one city
carnival
vsMardi Gras
30 2.8

A public festival with parades, music, and dancing in the streets

is the specific Shrove Tuesday celebration, often tied to one city
Fat Tuesday
vsMardi Gras
3 4.3

A day of feasting and parties before Lent, also called Mardi Gras

is the same occasion but named for the New Orleans style of celebration

Surface Forms

Mardi Gras singular
Mardi Gras plural

Morphology

Mardi + Gras

Mardi Gras is a borrowed French phrase literally meaning 'Fat Tuesday' (Mardi = Tuesday, Gras = fat), so a learner who knew those constituents could infer it names a special Tuesday associated with feasting. However the specific cultural sense — the last day before Lent and the festival/parade customs — is not fully derivable from the parts and requires cultural or lexical knowledge, so the transparency is partial.

Etymology

Mardi Gras gets its name from the French words Mardi and Gras, meaning 'Tuesday' and 'fat'. People would eat rich, fatty foods on the last day before the religious fast of 'Lent', and that feast turned into the big parades and mask parties in New Orleans we call Mardi Gras today.