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canasta

canasta

8 7.8
A card game where players make sets of the same number using two decks and jokers
  • noun
  • /kəˈnæstə/
translation icon : canasta
  • Any of you boys wanna play canasta?

Examples

  • We'd talk, play canasta, listen to gramophone records, Gilbert and Sullivan mostly.

  • Do we want to play canasta with the Sheinfelds?

  • Then you go play canasta with the women.

  • You could play canasta on it.

  • We can play canasta again.

  • We read, we talk, we play canasta and Scrabble.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • Sadie Reuben is looking for a canasta party.

  • Twice a week, she drove her white Dodge Dart over the mountain and into Highlands to the Senior Citizens Center for canasta and talk.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • Our moms sat on the deck waiting for fish, playing canasta and murmuring to one another.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • Every Friday, we gather at my house to play canasta with our friends.

Synonyms

meld
vscanasta
14 9.9

A card game like rummy played with two decks and wild cards

is the rummy-family game played to form sets of the same rank
basket rummy
vscanasta
  • US
6.2

A card game using two decks and four jokers where jokers and twos are wild and players form sets

is the specific rummy family game focused on forming same rank sets

How Complex

bridge
34 6.7
canasta
8 7.8
rummy
11 4.1
party game
8 1.2
child's game
3 1.0

Surface Forms

canasta singular
canastas plural

Etymology

Canasta comes from the Spanish word canasta, which means 'basket'. In the card game players collect matching cards into sets, like filling a 'basket', so the name helps you remember that canasta is about gathering groups of cards.