Halloween

proper nouncommon in dialogue

United Kingdom//ˌha.ləˈwiːn//
United Kingdom//ˌha.ləʊˈiːn//
Canada//ˌhæ.ləˈwiːn//
Canada//ˌhɑ.ləˈwiːn//
Canada//ˌhæ.loʊˈiːn//

The eve of All Hallows' Day; October 31st; celebrated (mostly in English-speaking countries) by children going door-to-door in costume and soliciting candy with menaces.

proper noun

1
The eve of All Hallows' Day; October 31st; celebrated (mostly in English-speaking countries) by children going door-to-door in costume and soliciting candy with menaces.
They all get dressed up in scary costumes at Halloween.
1987, Kai Hansen, "Halloween", Helloween, Keeper Of The Seven Keys: Part 1. Black is the night full of fright / You'll be missing the day / What will be here very soon / Changing your way / A knock at your door / It is real or is it a dream / On trembling legs you open the door / And you scream... on Halloween

Etymology

From a Scots shortening of Allhalloweven, from Allhallowmas (the obsolete earlier name of All Saints' Day) + even (an archaic or poetic variant of eve; see also een). For the American pronunciation with /ɑ/, compare the Southern English traditional dialect pronunciations fallow /ˈfɒ.lə/ and tallow /ˈtɒ.lə/.

Forms

plural: Halloweens

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Halloween · The eve of All Hallows' Day; October 31st; celebrated (mostly in English-speaking countries) by children going door-to-door in costume and soliciting…

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The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.