A cartoon is an animated film, usually a short one, and also a funny drawing or caricature in a newspaper. It isn't cardboard, even though a similar word, such as German Karton or Spanish cartón, means exactly that: the material is cardboard, and a box made of it is a cardboard box. A container for milk or juice is a carton, with one o.
cartoon: will you get the meaning right?
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watch cartoons; a cartoon about + subject; a cartoon character; a political cartoon
- On Saturday mornings my kids watch cartoons while I make pancakes.
- The newspaper published a cartoon showing the mayor stuck in a traffic jam.
What changed
First versionThe new shoes came in a big cartoon box.
RevisionThe new shoes came in a big cardboard box.
Cartoon may sound like the word for cardboard, but it means an animated film. The material a box is made of is cardboard. There's also carton, a container for milk or juice, so the three words are easy to mix up.
The word also has an older meaning from painting: a full-size preparatory drawing for a fresco or tapestry. The famous Raphael Cartoons are kept in London's Victoria and Albert Museum. In everyday speech, a cartoon is a short animated film, and a feature-length one is more often called an animated film: Frozen is an animated film.
Your turn
My three-year-old daughter watches one short ___ before bed.
Show the answer
cartoon — The child watches something short before bed, which is a cartoon. A carton is a container for milk or juice, and nobody watches it.
Describe a cartoon you loved as a child. Name it and the character you liked most.
As a child I loved the cartoon "Tom and Jerry", and Jerry was always my favourite character.
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