A selection of ‘Carnival’ definitions found online:
Oxford:
An annual festival, typically during the week before Lent in Roman Catholic countries, involving processions, music, dancing, and the use of masquerade.
Cambridge:
(a special occasion or period of) public enjoyment and entertainment involving wearing unusual clothes, dancing, and eating and drinking, usually held in the streets of a city:
Collins:
A carnival is a public festival during which people play music and sometimes dance in the streets.
A carnival is a travelling show which is held in a park or field and at which there are machines to ride on, entertainments, and games.
A carnival of something such as colours or sounds is a bright or exciting mixture of them.
Miriam Webster:
1: a season or festival of merrymaking before Lent
2a: an instance of merrymaking, feasting, or masquerading
b: an instance of riotous excess, a carnival of violence
3a: a traveling enterprise offering amusements
b: an organized program of entertainment or exhibition
Dictionary.com:
A traveling amusement show, having sideshows, rides, etc.
Any merrymaking, revelry, or festival, as a program of sports or entertainment
The season immediately preceding Lent, often observed with merrymaking; Shrovetide
The Free Dictionary:
- often Carnival The period of merrymaking and feasting celebrated just before Lent.
- A traveling amusement show usually including rides, games, and sideshows.
- A festival or revel: winter carnival.
Oxford Learner Dictionary:
A public festival, usually one that happens at a regular time each year, that involves music and dancing in the streets, for which people wear brightly coloured clothes
Vocabulary.com:
a traveling show; having sideshows and rides and games of skill etc.
a festival marked by merrymaking and processions
a frenetic disorganized (and often comic) disturbance suggestive of a large public entertainment