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Glite Dictionary
caroling

caroling

13 2.5
Singing joyful Christmas or other religious songs, usually in a group
  • noun
  • /ˈkɛrəlɪŋ/
  • US
translation icon : cantar villancicos
  • The church organized a caroling night where everyone sang classic Christmas songs together.
  • Christmas caroling
  • go caroling
  • holiday caroling

Examples

  • Remember the caroling parties?

    Fiction book (1995)

  • There are also plenty of kids' activities, such as caroling and coloring.

    Blog text (6)

  • Every year, my mom gets more involved with her caroling group.

    The Oranges (2011)

  • We will go caroling one evening early in December as well.

    Blog text (12)

  • When I was little, my favorite Christmas tradition was going caroling with the church.

    Blog text (2)

  • Then we made extra to carry with us when we went caroling.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Want to go caroling?

    No Escape (1994)

  • All those arguments, Mom insisting I had to be home for Christmas Eve dinner when I'd been invited to go caroling.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Gingerbread houses, wreathes, caroling, stockings.

    The Swan Princess Christmas (2012)

  • Experience a historic Christmas at Mt. Vernon with a candlelight tour and caroling on selected evenings from November 23 to January 6.

    Blog text (17)

How Festive

caroling
  • US
13 2.5
performance
539 2.7
singing
251 1.0
humming
4 1.0

Surface Forms

caroling singular
carolings plural

Morphology

caroling = carol (transparent) = carol + ing

Formed directly from the verb 'carol' with the gerundial/noun-forming suffix '-ing', yielding the action or event of singing carols.

Etymology

Caroling comes from the old word carol, which meant a 'dance song' that people sang while dancing, so to go caroling is to sing joyful songs together, often at Christmas.