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Synonyms

carte

1 American  
[kahrt, kart] / kɑrt, kart /

noun

plural

cartes

  1. (italics) menu; bill of fare.

  2. a playing card.

  3. Archaic. a map or chart.

Carte 2 American  
[kahrt] / kɑrt /

noun

  1. Richard d'Oyly D'Oyly Carte, Richard.

Carte 1 British  
/ kɑːt /

noun

  1. See D'Oyly Carte

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
carte 2 British  
/ kɑːt /

noun

  1. a variant spelling of quarte

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of carte

before 1150; Middle English, Old English: writing paper, document, letter < Latin charta < Greek chártēs sheet of papyrus

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.

Experts say airlines started to really embrace the a la carte — or unbundled — pricing model when online travel-booking platforms came of age several years ago.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 10, 2026

He has more or less carte blanche to use the Danish territory for security purposes and simply stopped talking about it.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 20, 2026

Giving the government carte blanche to carry out the worst possible use cases of A.I. would clear up the issue quickly and reveal Anthropic’s moral value proposition to be a lie.

From Slate • Feb. 25, 2026

One might argue that Fennell’s stunning images and the familiar emotions they convey are a happy accident, the result of millions of dollars and a director given carte blanche to play as she sees fit.

From Salon • Feb. 14, 2026

He smiled mysteriously and pulled a much-handled carte de visite from his pocket.

From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly

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.