archaic
ar·cha·ic/ɑɹˈkeɪ.ɪk/noun, adjective
archaic is spelled A-R-C-H-A-I-C, 3 syllables: ar·cha·ic. The wrong spelling people search most is archiac: about 80 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 36 of all searches for the word. Archaic is a noun meaning “The prehistoric period intermediate between the earliest period (‘Paleo-Indian’, ‘Paleo-American’…”. The plural of archaic is archaics.
How many letters and syllables are in archaic?
| Letters | 7: A-R-C-H-A-I-C |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: ar·cha·ic |
| In writing | 2.3 times per million words; the 18,064th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, archiac, about 80 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell archaic?
Archaic is spelled A-R-C-H-A-I-C. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 36 of the searches for archaic in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is archaic?
Archaic appears 2.3 times per million words in written English, the 18,064th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce archaic?
- UK /ɑːˈkeɪ.ɪk/
- US /ɑɹˈkeɪ.ɪk/
- Australia /ɐːˈkæɪ.ɪk/
Archaic has 3 syllables, split ar·cha·ic in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-archaic.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with archaic?
10 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as archaic from its last stressed vowel (/eɪɪk/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of archaic
- archaics plural
- more archaic comparative
- most archaic superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does archaic mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
USThe prehistoric period intermediate between the earliest period (‘Paleo-Indian’, ‘Paleo-American’, ‘American‐paleolithic’, etc.) of human presence in the Western Hemisphere, and the most recent prehistoric period (‘Woodland’, etc.).
… Archaic Stage … the stage of migratory hunting and gathering cultures continuing into environmental conditions approximately those of the present.
- 2
(A member of) an archaic variety of Homo sapiens.
adjective
- 1
Of or characterized by antiquity; old-fashioned, quaint, antiquated.
- 2
No longer in ordinary use, though still used occasionally to give a sense of antiquity and still likely to be understood by well-educated speakers and are found in historical texts.
- 3
Belonging to the archaic period.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate archaic?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of archaic: arch..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Archaic in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense old-fashioned or antiquated:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does archaic come from?
From archaism (“ancient or obsolete phrase or expression”) or from French archaïque, ultimately from Ancient Greek ἀρχαϊκός (arkhaïkós, “old-fashioned”), from ἀρχαῖος (arkhaîos, “from the beginning, antiquated, ancient, old”), from ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “beginning, origin”), from ἄρχω (árkhō, “to be first”), from ἄρχω (árkhō, “to begin”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ergʰ- (“to begin, rule, command”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).