See king cake in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for king cake meaning in English (9.3kB)
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "fr",
"3": "galette des rois",
"lit": "galette of the kings",
"nocap": "1"
},
"expansion": "calque of French galette des rois (literally “galette of the kings”)",
"name": "calque"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Probably a calque of French galette des rois (literally “galette of the kings”), meaning the three Magi who visited the baby Jesus at Epiphany.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "king cakes",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "~"
},
"expansion": "king cake (countable and uncountable, plural king cakes)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Japanese terms with redundant script codes",
"parents": [
"Terms with redundant script codes",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Louisiana English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Russian terms with redundant script codes",
"parents": [
"Terms with redundant script codes",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1901, “Twelfth Night or King's Cake. Gateau du Roi.”, in The Picayune's Creole Cook Book, 2nd edition, New Orleans, La.: The Picayune, →OCLC, pages 314–315",
"text": "A pretty superstition was also connected with the King's Cake. The lucky finder of the pecan, or bean, or ring, which was hidden within was henceforth to be favored by fortune. The queen cut the bean in two, and gave half of it to her king, and so, if a gentleman found it. The lucky bean was faithfully preserved as a talisman, and in many an old Creole family to-day there is carefully preserved a little shriveled amulet which was found in the Gateau du Roi on Twelfth Night.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2003, Marcia [G.] Gaudet, “The New Orleans King Cake in Southwest Louisiana”, in Marcia Gaudet, James C. McDonald, editors, Mardi Gras, Gumbo, and Zydeco: Readings in Louisiana Culture, Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, page 48",
"text": "In New Orleans, Twelfth Night is the beginning of the Mardi Gras season. The New Orleans Twelfth Night Cake or King Cake, as it is usually called today, is a traditional sweet yeast bread served on Twelfth Night and during the Mardi Gras season. The New Orleans King Cake is shaped to form a crown, and it is decorated with the traditional Mardi Gras colors using gold, purple, and green sugar. A bean or a small china doll was traditionally baked in the cake, but today a small plastic baby is usually hidden in the cake instead.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2006, Louise McKinney, New Orleans: A Cultural History, Oxford University Press, page 222",
"text": "Local custom dictates that Carnival has its official beginning when a debutante at her “coming out” ball finds a golden bean in her slice of king cake at the Twelfth Night Revelers’ Ball.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Susan Tucker, “King Cakes”, in John T. Edge, editor, Foodways (The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture; 7), Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, page 190",
"text": "King cakes, rich briochelike delicacies, make their appearance on 6 January, or Twelfth Night, and herald the beginning of the Carnival season in New Orleans.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2011, Yvonne Spear Perret, “Season According to Taste”, in Yat Wit: Chicken Gumbo for the New Orleans Soul, Gretna, New Orleans, La.: Pelican Publishing Company, page 69",
"text": "Finally, as Mardi Gras draws to a close, the parade-weary, traffic-stressed, kingcake-bloated population of New Orleans is relieved to welcome the onset of the next season—Lent.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014, Julie Murray, “King Cake”, in Mardi Gras (A Buddy Book), Minneapolis, Minn.: ABDO Publishing Company, page 18",
"text": "People eat king cake for Mardi Gras. A king cake is filled with cinnamon, fruit, or cream cheese. A small toy baby is placed inside the cake. It symbolizes the baby Jesus, from Christianity. One person gets the piece of cake with the baby. He or she buys the next king cake or throws the next party.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2024 February 12, Rick Rojas, “Outside New Orleans, a New Mardi Gras Experience: The King Cake Drive-Thru”, in The New York Times, →ISSN",
"text": "And this year, just outside New Orleans, a tire shop that for as long as anyone can remember sold only car parts has become a bustling marketplace offering king cakes, the delicacy of the Carnival season, in just about any conceivable flavor.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A decorative cake distributed among friends or visitors on Epiphany. In many traditions it contains a pea, a trinket or some other small object which entitles its finder to be the \"king\" for one day."
],
"id": "en-king_cake-en-noun-Bmwi0cZM",
"links": [
[
"decorative",
"decorative"
],
[
"cake",
"cake"
],
[
"distribute",
"distribute"
],
[
"Epiphany",
"Epiphany"
],
[
"tradition",
"tradition"
],
[
"pea",
"pea"
],
[
"trinket",
"trinket"
],
[
"king",
"king"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(Louisiana) A decorative cake distributed among friends or visitors on Epiphany. In many traditions it contains a pea, a trinket or some other small object which entitles its finder to be the \"king\" for one day."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "kingcake"
},
{
"word": "king's cake"
},
{
"word": "kings' cake"
},
{
"word": "epiphany cake"
},
{
"word": "three kings' cake"
},
{
"word": "twelfth cake"
},
{
"word": "Twelfth cake"
},
{
"word": "twelfth-day cake"
}
],
"tags": [
"Louisiana",
"countable",
"uncountable"
],
"translations": [
{
"alt": "kaʕka(t) ʕīd al-ḡaṭṭās",
"code": "ar",
"lang": "Arabic",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "كَعْكَة عِيد الغَطَّاس"
},
{
"code": "eu",
"lang": "Basque",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"word": "errege-opil"
},
{
"code": "ca",
"lang": "Catalan",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tortell"
},
{
"code": "ca",
"lang": "Catalan",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tortell de Reis"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "dìwáng dàngāo",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"word": "帝王蛋糕"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "helligtrekongerskage"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "driekoningentaart"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "koningentaart"
},
{
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"word": "reĝoflano"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"word": "loppiaiskakku"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "galette des rois"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "gâteau des rois"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "couronne des rois"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Dreikönigskuchen"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "vasilópita",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "βασιλόπιτα"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "galette des rois"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "garetto de rowa",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"word": "ガレット・デ・ロワ"
},
{
"code": "oc",
"lang": "Occitan",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "corona dels Reis"
},
{
"code": "oc",
"lang": "Occitan",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "reiaume"
},
{
"alt": "keyk pâd(e)šâh",
"code": "fa",
"lang": "Persian",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"word": "کیک پادشاه"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "ciasto Trzech Króli"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "bolo-rei"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "piróg volxvóv",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "пиро́г волхво́в"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "roscón de Reyes"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "rosca de Reyes"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "kungskaka"
},
{
"code": "vi",
"lang": "Vietnamese",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"word": "bánh vua"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/kɪŋ keɪk/",
"tags": [
"General-American",
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-au-king cake.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e8/En-au-king_cake.ogg/En-au-king_cake.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/En-au-king_cake.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "king cake"
}
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "fr",
"3": "galette des rois",
"lit": "galette of the kings",
"nocap": "1"
},
"expansion": "calque of French galette des rois (literally “galette of the kings”)",
"name": "calque"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Probably a calque of French galette des rois (literally “galette of the kings”), meaning the three Magi who visited the baby Jesus at Epiphany.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "king cakes",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "~"
},
"expansion": "king cake (countable and uncountable, plural king cakes)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms calqued from French",
"English terms derived from French",
"English terms with IPA pronunciation",
"English terms with audio links",
"English terms with quotations",
"English uncountable nouns",
"Japanese terms with redundant script codes",
"Louisiana English",
"Russian terms with redundant script codes"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1901, “Twelfth Night or King's Cake. Gateau du Roi.”, in The Picayune's Creole Cook Book, 2nd edition, New Orleans, La.: The Picayune, →OCLC, pages 314–315",
"text": "A pretty superstition was also connected with the King's Cake. The lucky finder of the pecan, or bean, or ring, which was hidden within was henceforth to be favored by fortune. The queen cut the bean in two, and gave half of it to her king, and so, if a gentleman found it. The lucky bean was faithfully preserved as a talisman, and in many an old Creole family to-day there is carefully preserved a little shriveled amulet which was found in the Gateau du Roi on Twelfth Night.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2003, Marcia [G.] Gaudet, “The New Orleans King Cake in Southwest Louisiana”, in Marcia Gaudet, James C. McDonald, editors, Mardi Gras, Gumbo, and Zydeco: Readings in Louisiana Culture, Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, page 48",
"text": "In New Orleans, Twelfth Night is the beginning of the Mardi Gras season. The New Orleans Twelfth Night Cake or King Cake, as it is usually called today, is a traditional sweet yeast bread served on Twelfth Night and during the Mardi Gras season. The New Orleans King Cake is shaped to form a crown, and it is decorated with the traditional Mardi Gras colors using gold, purple, and green sugar. A bean or a small china doll was traditionally baked in the cake, but today a small plastic baby is usually hidden in the cake instead.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2006, Louise McKinney, New Orleans: A Cultural History, Oxford University Press, page 222",
"text": "Local custom dictates that Carnival has its official beginning when a debutante at her “coming out” ball finds a golden bean in her slice of king cake at the Twelfth Night Revelers’ Ball.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Susan Tucker, “King Cakes”, in John T. Edge, editor, Foodways (The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture; 7), Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, page 190",
"text": "King cakes, rich briochelike delicacies, make their appearance on 6 January, or Twelfth Night, and herald the beginning of the Carnival season in New Orleans.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2011, Yvonne Spear Perret, “Season According to Taste”, in Yat Wit: Chicken Gumbo for the New Orleans Soul, Gretna, New Orleans, La.: Pelican Publishing Company, page 69",
"text": "Finally, as Mardi Gras draws to a close, the parade-weary, traffic-stressed, kingcake-bloated population of New Orleans is relieved to welcome the onset of the next season—Lent.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014, Julie Murray, “King Cake”, in Mardi Gras (A Buddy Book), Minneapolis, Minn.: ABDO Publishing Company, page 18",
"text": "People eat king cake for Mardi Gras. A king cake is filled with cinnamon, fruit, or cream cheese. A small toy baby is placed inside the cake. It symbolizes the baby Jesus, from Christianity. One person gets the piece of cake with the baby. He or she buys the next king cake or throws the next party.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2024 February 12, Rick Rojas, “Outside New Orleans, a New Mardi Gras Experience: The King Cake Drive-Thru”, in The New York Times, →ISSN",
"text": "And this year, just outside New Orleans, a tire shop that for as long as anyone can remember sold only car parts has become a bustling marketplace offering king cakes, the delicacy of the Carnival season, in just about any conceivable flavor.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A decorative cake distributed among friends or visitors on Epiphany. In many traditions it contains a pea, a trinket or some other small object which entitles its finder to be the \"king\" for one day."
],
"links": [
[
"decorative",
"decorative"
],
[
"cake",
"cake"
],
[
"distribute",
"distribute"
],
[
"Epiphany",
"Epiphany"
],
[
"tradition",
"tradition"
],
[
"pea",
"pea"
],
[
"trinket",
"trinket"
],
[
"king",
"king"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(Louisiana) A decorative cake distributed among friends or visitors on Epiphany. In many traditions it contains a pea, a trinket or some other small object which entitles its finder to be the \"king\" for one day."
],
"tags": [
"Louisiana",
"countable",
"uncountable"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/kɪŋ keɪk/",
"tags": [
"General-American",
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-au-king cake.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e8/En-au-king_cake.ogg/En-au-king_cake.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/En-au-king_cake.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "kingcake"
},
{
"word": "king's cake"
},
{
"word": "kings' cake"
},
{
"word": "epiphany cake"
},
{
"word": "three kings' cake"
},
{
"word": "twelfth cake"
},
{
"word": "Twelfth cake"
},
{
"word": "twelfth-day cake"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"alt": "kaʕka(t) ʕīd al-ḡaṭṭās",
"code": "ar",
"lang": "Arabic",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "كَعْكَة عِيد الغَطَّاس"
},
{
"code": "eu",
"lang": "Basque",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"word": "errege-opil"
},
{
"code": "ca",
"lang": "Catalan",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tortell"
},
{
"code": "ca",
"lang": "Catalan",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tortell de Reis"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "dìwáng dàngāo",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"word": "帝王蛋糕"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "helligtrekongerskage"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "driekoningentaart"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "koningentaart"
},
{
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"word": "reĝoflano"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"word": "loppiaiskakku"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "galette des rois"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "gâteau des rois"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "couronne des rois"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Dreikönigskuchen"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "vasilópita",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "βασιλόπιτα"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "galette des rois"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "garetto de rowa",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"word": "ガレット・デ・ロワ"
},
{
"code": "oc",
"lang": "Occitan",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "corona dels Reis"
},
{
"code": "oc",
"lang": "Occitan",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "reiaume"
},
{
"alt": "keyk pâd(e)šâh",
"code": "fa",
"lang": "Persian",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"word": "کیک پادشاه"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "ciasto Trzech Króli"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "bolo-rei"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "piróg volxvóv",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "пиро́г волхво́в"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "roscón de Reyes"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "rosca de Reyes"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "kungskaka"
},
{
"code": "vi",
"lang": "Vietnamese",
"sense": "cake eaten on Epiphany",
"word": "bánh vua"
}
],
"word": "king cake"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.