Festival
adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A feast or feast day. countable, uncountable
"All your males are to appear three times a year before the Lord your God in the place He chooses: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Booths. No one is to appear before the Lord empty-handed."
- 2 an organized series of acts and performances (usually in one place) wordnet
- 3 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. countable, uncountable
"The Reading and Leeds festivals take place on the August bank holiday."
- 4 a day or period of time set aside for feasting and celebration wordnet
- 5 In mythology, a set of celebrations in the honour of a god. countable, uncountable
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- 6 Fried cornbread. Caribbean, Jamaica, uncountable
- 1 Pertaining to a feast or feast day; festive. (Now only as the noun used attributively.)
"the temple of the Gods […] / Whom all the people decke with girlands greene, / And honour in their festiuall resort […]"
Example
More examples"My school is getting ready for the campus music festival."
Etymology
From Middle English festival (adjective), from Old French festival (“festive”), from Late Latin fēstīvālis, from Latin fēstīvus (“festive”). By surface analysis, festive + -al. Displaced native Old English frēols. The noun is shortened from festival day, from Middle English festival dai, festiuall day (“feast day, festival”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.