Carol

How to spell carol

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce carol

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does carol mean?

1. nounA joyful song, especially a religious one traditionally sung at Christmas.
2. verbTo sing festive songs, especially going from house to house at Christmas.

Carol in a sentence

• noun

  The choir rehearsed every carol before the church service.

• verb

  The neighbours plan to carol outside the care home this December.

• noun

  Her favourite carol has been sung at the village hall for decades.

• verb

  Children love to carol door to door for charity each winter.

Where does carol come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English in the early 1300s from the Old French carole, which named a ring dance performed to singing rather than a song on its own. The French term is usually traced back to the Late Latin choraula, meaning a person who played the flute to accompany a chorus, and that in turn rests on the Greek choraules, built from khoros 'a dance or band of dancers' and aulos 'a reed pipe or flute'. Over time the focus shifted from the circling dance to the joyful song that went with it, and by the 1500s a carol was firmly a festive religious song, especially one sung at Christmas. The same khoros root still echoes in the words 'chorus' and 'choir', which helps explain the celebratory, group-singing feel of a carol. The single 'r' and single 'l' are the quiet spelling trap here, since the rhythm of the word tempts writers to double one of them.

How the word is built

• carol (from Old French carole: a ring dance accompanied by song); a single unanalysable root in modern English