car

[kɑː]

/[kɑː]/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“car” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #8,996) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#8,996
frequency rank, German
1,273
“C” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Kraftfahrzeug auf vier Rädern zum Transport weniger Personen

Corpus desk

Index DE-car · car · German

car · rank #8,996 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #8,996
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,273
  • PHOTO-FINISH bond

Nearest frequency peer: bond (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbourhood for “car”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “car” sits against the nearest ranked German headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

car vs cm
33% similar
car vs CD
0% similar
car vs Ch
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for car
PropertyValue
Headwordcar
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[kɑː]
Letters3
Frequency rank#8,996
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Wo “car” in der deutschen Häufigkeit sitzt

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.carliegt hier:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. In derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite liegen „bond“ (#8,995), „CDs“ (#8,997), „Beta“ (#8,994). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for car is neighbouring look-alikes ("cm", "CD", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced [kɑː]. Frequency #8,996 among 1,273 “C” headwords. 4 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for car, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cm", "CD", "Ch", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct German form is car, spelled C-A-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Kraftfahrzeug auf vier Rädern zum Transport weniger Personen
  2. 2
    britisch: spezieller Eisenbahnwagen für Passagiere
  3. 3
    US-amerikanisch: Eisenbahnwagen
  4. 4
    Transportbehälter an Aufzug, Ballon, Luftschiff oder Seilbahn

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how car appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Don't you have a car?
  2. "Their descent was visibly accelerated, and soon after midday the car hung within six hundred feet of the ocean."

Synonyms

autoautomobilecarriagerailroad carrail carwagon

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "car"?
"car" is spelled C-A-R. The IPA pronunciation is [kɑː].
What does "car" mean?
As a noun, "car" means: Kraftfahrzeug auf vier Rädern zum Transport weniger Personen
What words are commonly confused with "car"?
"car" is commonly confused with "cm", "CD", "Ch". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "car"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "car" is [kɑː]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "car" come from?
"car" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "car", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

CDs#8,997arg#8,984GPS#9,037LAN#8,904

What to do next

You've looked up "car". Here's where to go from here.

  • "car" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "cm". View pair
  • Usage frequency rank #8,996 among German headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more German words in the "C" letter cohort. C–Z browse

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list