Dictionary

canasta en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /kəˈnæstə/

Etymology

From Spanish canasta. The game originates from Uruguay.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) A card game similar to rummy and played using two packs, where the object is to meld groups of the same rank.
   • Imagine, first, two players who engage in a game of canasta according to a standard set of rules.[…]We may imagine, however, that at a certain moment the two canasta players cease to play canasta and start a discussion of the rules. 2004, Gregory Bateson, “15: A Theory of Play and Fantasy”, in Henry Bial, editor, The Performance Studies Reader, page 130:
   • Modern American Canasta is a younger cousin of the game of Canasta I explain here. 2011, Barry Rigal, Card Games For Dummies, unnumbered page:
   • “Do you know something, Fred?” she announced, “I won four dollars and eighty-five cents playing Canasta this afternoon.” “Canasta!” exclaimed Mr. Grimes, “I didn′t know you could play that silly game.” 1951 July, Henry F. Tenney, “Per Stirpes and Not Per Capita: Or, What Your Clients Can Never Tell You”, in ABA Journal, page 492:
2. (countable) A meld of seven cards in a game of canasta.
   • Groups of seven of a kind are called canastas, and before a player can go out he or his partner must have at least one canasta. 1949 December 19, “The Canasta Craze”, in Life (magazine), page 47:

Forms

Translations (15)

fi canasta (card game) · nb canasta (seven cards) · ru кана́ста (card game) · pl kanasta (card game) · bg канаста (card game) · mk кана́ста (card game) · cs kanasta (card game) · es canasta (card game) · pt canasta (card game) · id canasta (card game) · nb canasta (card game) · hu kanaszta (card game) · he קנסטה (card game) · fr canasta (card game) · de Canasta (card game)