cartoon
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]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
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /kɑːˈtuːn/
- (General American) IPA(key): /kɑɹˈtun/
- Rhymes: -uːn
Noun
[edit]

cartoon (plural cartoons)
- (comics) A humorous drawing, often with a caption, or a strip of such drawings.
- (comics) A drawing satirising current public figures.
- The newspaper published a political cartoon mocking the mayor.
- (art) An artist's preliminary sketch.
- (art) A full-sized drawing that serves as the template for a fresco, a tapestry, etc.
- (animation) An animated piece of film which is often but not exclusively humorous.
- The children watched a funny cartoon on TV.
- (animation) A cartoon series.
- 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.
- 12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift
- A diagram in a scientific concept.
Synonyms
[edit]- (humorous drawing or strip): comic strip, strip cartoon
- (satire of public figures): caricature, political cartoon
- (animated piece of film): animated cartoon, animation
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]Translations
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Verb
[edit]cartoon (third-person singular simple present cartoons, present participle cartooning, simple past and past participle cartooned)
Anagrams
[edit]Dutch
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from English cartoon.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]cartoon m (plural cartoons, diminutive cartoontje n)
- cartoon (humorous drawing, often with a caption, or a strip of such drawings)
- cartoon (animated piece of film which is often but not exclusively humorous)
Derived terms
[edit]Further reading
[edit]
cartoon on the Dutch Wikipedia.Wikipedia nl
French
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]cartoon m (plural cartoons)
Portuguese
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Unadapted borrowing from English cartoon.
Pronunciation
[edit]
Noun
[edit]cartoon m (plural cartoons)
- alternative form of cartune
Further reading
[edit]- “cartoon”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
- “cartoon”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026
Spanish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Unadapted borrowing from English cartoon.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]cartoon m (plural cartoons)
Usage notes
[edit]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
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “cartoon”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
- English terms derived from French
- English terms derived from Italian
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English doublets
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/uːn
- Rhymes:English/uːn/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Comics
- English terms with usage examples
- en:Art
- en:Animation
- English verbs
- en:Visualization
- Dutch terms borrowed from English
- Dutch terms derived from English
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Dutch terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Dutch/uːn
- Rhymes:Dutch/uːn/2 syllables
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch nouns with plural in -s
- Dutch masculine nouns
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- Portuguese unadapted borrowings from English
- Portuguese terms derived from English
- Portuguese terms borrowed from English
- Portuguese 2-syllable words
- Portuguese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese nouns
- Portuguese countable nouns
- Portuguese masculine nouns
- Spanish terms derived from English
- Spanish terms borrowed from English
- Spanish unadapted borrowings from English
- Spanish 2-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/un
- Rhymes:Spanish/un/2 syllables
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish countable nouns
- Spanish masculine nouns
- es:Art
- es:Comics
- es:Animation
