cartoon

noun, often attributive car·toon \ kär-ˈtün \

Updated on: 17 Apr 2018

Definition of cartoon

1 : a preparatory design, drawing, or painting (as for a fresco)

2 a : a drawing intended as satire, caricature, or humor

a political cartoon

b : comic strip

3 : animated cartoon

4 : a ludicrously simplistic, unrealistic, or one-dimensional portrayal or version

the film's villain is an entertaining cartoon

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cartoon

verb

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cartooning

noun

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cartoonish

play \-ˈtü-nish\ adjective

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cartoonishly

adverb

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cartoonist

play \-ˈtü-nist\ noun

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cartoonlike

play \-ˈtün-ˌlīk\ adjective

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cartoony

play \-ˈtü-nē\ adjective

See cartoon defined for English-language learners

See cartoon defined for kids

Examples of cartoon in a Sentence

She enjoys reading the cartoons in the Sunday paper.
The kids are watching cartoons.

Recent Examples of cartoon from the Web

Investigators say about 500 pounds of meth, worth $2 million, was found inside figurines shaped like popular cartoon characters.

— caitlin o'kane, CBS News, "DEA seizes knock-off Disney figurines filled with meth," 11 Apr. 2018
Almost immediately after posting the photo, people on Twitter began replying if there had been a mistake and started comparing it to a SnapChat filter or other cartoon characters.

— travis fedschun, Fox News, "Sketch of burglary suspect draws 'hilarious' attention online," 4 Apr. 2018
There are elaborate works of art, cartoon characters, superheroes, nature scenes, or just bright colors.

— michael k. mcintyre, cleveland.com, "Painted rock movement explodes, bringing joy to those who find them and those who paint and hide them: Michael K. McIntyre," 1 Apr. 2018
Named after the 1980s Saturday morning cartoon character, Fat Albert is a Marine Corps C-130T Hercules painted Navy blue whose mission is to ferry spare parts, aircraft maintainers, and other necessities when the team is on the road.

— kyle mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "The Blue Angels Are Looking for a New “Fat Albert” C-130," 28 Mar. 2018
Herring told media outlets his son is a deer hunter and fan of the cartoon characters known as Ninja Turtles.

— mark price, charlotteobserver, "NC seventh grader draws Ninja and deer hunter carrying weapons and gets suspended | Charlotte Observer," 27 Mar. 2018
The members of Super Junior also get turned into cartoon characters and can be seen dancing, and dabbing, in time to the lyrics while partying it up in a club and with a table filled with liquor.

— tamar herman, Billboard, "Super Junior Releases Animated Video for 'Super Duper'," 24 Mar. 2018
Yeah, people would get bored if 30 minutes in you realize that the bad guys are just cartoon characters.

— bill goodykoontz, azcentral, "'Workaholics' creators on making Netflix movie 'Game Over, Man!'," 21 Mar. 2018
The actor who voiced Uncle O'Grimacey, Lennie Weinrib, also lent his voice to numerous cartoon characters including Scooby-Doo's nephew Scrappy-Doo, Bigmouth from The Smurfs, and Gomez Addams from the animated Addams Family series.

— tanya pai, Vox, "Shamrock Shakes, and their cult following, explained," 16 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cartoon.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of cartoon

Italian cartone pasteboard, cartoon, augmentative of carta leaf of paper — more at card

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1671

See Words from the same year

cartoon Synonyms

Synonyms

delineation, drawing, sketch;

Related Words

contour, figure, outline, silhouette;

caricature, doodle, illustration;

depiction, image, likeness, portrait, representation;

engraving, etch, etching;

aquatint, charcoal, line drawing, pastel, watercolor;

blueprint;

CARTOON Defined for English Language Learners

cartoon

noun

Definition of cartoon for English Language Learners

: a drawing in a newspaper or magazine intended as a humorous comment on something
: a series of drawings that tell a story
: a film or television show made by photographing a series of drawings : an animated film or television show