mardi gras

Questions about mardi gras

What does mardi gras mean?

mardi gras means "the last day before Lent". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for mardi gras?

Close synonyms include Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, pancake day, Fat Tuesday. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is mardi gras a common word?

mardi gras is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.