Link Centre Dictionary

Halloween

hal·lo·ween

UK/ˌha.ləˈwiːn/ US/ˌha.ləʊˈiːn/ common

noun

1.

the evening before All Saints'' Day; often devoted to pranks played by young people

Synonyms

Origin

From a Scots shortening of Allhalloweven, from Allhallowmas (the obsolete earlier name of All Saints' Day) + even (an archaic or poetic variant of eve; see also een). For the American pronunciation with /ɑ/, compare the Southern English traditional dialect pronunciations fallow /ˈfɒ.lə/ and tallow /ˈtɒ.lə/.

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.