Bacchanalia
noun
a festival in honor of Bacchus.
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Bacchanalia
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bacchanalia
bacchanaliaplural noun(often capital) orgiastic rites associated with Bacchus
Bacchanalia
American
[bak-uh-ney-lee-uh, -neyl-yuh]
/ ˌbæk əˈneɪ li ə, -ˈneɪl jə /
noun
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Bacchanalia,
plural
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Bacchanalias
plural
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(sometimes used with a plural verb) a festival in honor of Bacchus.
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(lowercase) a drunken feast; orgy.
bacchanalia
British
/ ˌbækəˈneɪlɪə /
plural noun
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(often capital) orgiastic rites associated with Bacchus
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any drunken revelry
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of Bacchanalia
1625–35; < Latin equivalent to Bacch ( us ) + -ān ( us ) -an + -ālia, neuter plural of -ālis -al 1; probably modeled on volcānālia. See Saturnalia
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
While fatherhood has slowed my nightlife habits, judging by the gondola banter of a quintet of seasonal employees regaling the night prior’s exploits, the Bacchanalia is back.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 13, 2023
Alec Gunn, the chief executive of a warehousing company, who was an early Bacchanalia diner, said he felt that such theme parks of overindulgence were important for the London scene, and that they were aspirational.
From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2022
This is surprising because he’s typically very chatty with the media and months ago decided to lean into the unbridled hedonism of Bacchanalia.
From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2022
At Bacchanalia, the emphasis is on freshness, and the restaurant uses all organic ingredients, many of which are sourced from the owner's personal farm.
From Time ● Aug. 17, 2017
His mother might only have gone to one of her bowling Bacchanalia.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
An omen among omens: Mid-dog-walk that day, I spot a onesie that reads “Milk Drunk” and shudder at the impulse to recruit our newborns into low-key bacchanalia.
From Slate ● May 10, 2026
Coming on the heels of the Grammy Award-winning “Harry’s House,” “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally” is an experimental tour-de-force, a pop smorgasbord that is part homage, part electronica and part bacchanalia.
From Salon ● Mar. 6, 2026
A huge banner carpeted the famed Piazza San Marco before his three-day bacchanalia: “If you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2025
A lot of my favorite moments at The Verge happened at CES, the bacchanalia of consumer tech and consumerism that used to matter much more than it does now.
From The Verge ● Mar. 4, 2022
The bacchanalia of Athens were enthusiastically imitated in Jerusalem, and, as a matter of course, in Alexandria.
From Jewish Literature and Other Essays by Gustav Karpeles
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
