Carte Meaning
/kɑː(ɹ)t/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA bill of fare; a menu.
nounA visiting card.
Sentence Examples
These drinks are a la carte.
You have carte blanche, you can do what you want.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The chef presented the ____ of wines for the guests to choose from.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We chose a delicious three-course meal from the a la ____ menu tonight.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from French carte, from Latin charta. Doublet of card and chart.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
""He only says she is Laura Somerset, and he sends me her carte; here it is." Now this was in the early days of cartes, and the soft ivory finish and delicate tinting of the cartes that now are taken, were unknown."
— 1869, Emma Jane Worboise, “Confidences”, in The Fortunes of Cyril Denham, London: James Clarke & Co., […]; Hodder & Stoughton, […], →OCLC, page 258:
"Celebrity cartes, and photographic portraits more generally, were valued in Victorian culture for their much-lauded ability to render the sitter as he or she really was."
— 2013, C. Boyce, P. Finnerty, A. Millim, Victorian Celebrity Culture and Tennyson's Circle:
"We’ll take a dram for luck, and as soon as this handless man of mine has the collops ready, we’ll dine and take a hand at the cartes as gentlemen should."
— 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC:
"He had been to the supper of the Forest Club at the Cross Keys in Gledsmuir, a clamjamphry of wild young blades who passed the wine and played at cartes once a fortnight."
— 1902 January, John Buchan, “The Outgoing of the Tide”, in The Watcher by the Threshold, and Other Tales, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1902, →OCLC, page 242:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The chef presented the ____ of wines for the guests to choose from.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We chose a delicious three-course meal from the a la ____ menu tonight.