cartoon

English Online Dictionary. What means cartoon‎? What does cartoon mean?

English

Etymology

In British English first, from French carton (“sketch, cardboard, card”), from Italian cartone (“cardboard, carton, box”), augmentative of carta (“paper”), from Latin carta (“papyrus, paper”), from Ancient Greek χάρτης (khártēs) (see there for further etymology). Doublet of carton and card.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /kɑɹˈtuːn/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɑːˈtuːn/
• Rhymes: -uːn

Noun

cartoon (plural cartoons)

1. (comics) A humorous drawing, often with a caption, or a strip of such drawings.
2. (comics) A drawing satirising current public figures.
3. (art) An artist's preliminary sketch.
4. (art) A full-sized drawing that serves as the template for a fresco, a tapestry, etc.
5. (animation) An animated piece of film which is often but not exclusively humorous.
   • 12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift

     The matter of whether the world needs a fourth Ice Age movie pales beside the question of why there were three before it, but Continental Drift feels less like an extension of a theatrical franchise than an episode of a middling TV cartoon, lolling around on territory that’s already been settled.

6. A diagram in a scientific concept.

Synonyms

• (humorous drawing or strip): comic strip, strip cartoon
• (satire of public figures): caricature, political cartoon
• (animated piece of film): animated cartoon, animation

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• → Portuguese: cartune, cartum
• → Swahili: katuni

Translations

Verb

cartoon (third-person singular simple present cartoons, present participle cartooning, simple past and past participle cartooned)

1. (art, comics, animation) To draw a cartoon, a humorous drawing.
2. (art) To make a preliminary sketch.

Anagrams

• coranto

French

Noun

cartoon m (plural cartoons)

1. cartoon

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English cartoon.

Pronunciation

Noun

cartoon m (plural cartoons)

1. Alternative form of cartune

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English cartoon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaɾˈtun/ [kaɾˈt̪ũn]
• Rhymes: -un

Noun

cartoon m (plural cartoons)

1. (art, comics, animation) cartoon

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Derived terms

Further reading

• “cartoon”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10