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PlainSpell

car

UK /kɑː/noun

car is spelled C-A-R: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 282 times per million words in written English, the 338th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, car means “A wheeled vehicle that moves independently, with at least three wheels, powered mechanically, steered by a driver and mostly for personal…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of car is cars.

How many letters and syllables are in car?

Letters3: C-A-R
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing282 times per million words; the 338th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is car?

Car appears 282 times per million words in written English, the 338th 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 car?

  • UK /kɑː/
  • UK [kʰɑː]
  • [kʰäɾ]

Car has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-a_car.ogg, En-us-car.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with car

Sounds like: carr (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: cah, carr.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with car?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as car from its last stressed vowel (/ɑ/, British pronunciation):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: arc.

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 car

  • cars plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does car mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A wheeled vehicle that moves independently, with at least three wheels, powered mechanically, steered by a driver and mostly for personal transportation but relatively smaller than a truck/lorry and a bus.

    in a car

  2. 2

    archaicA wheeled vehicle, drawn by a horse or other animal.

  3. 3

    archaicA cart.

  4. 4

    archaicA chariot.

  5. 5

    UKarchaicobsoleteA four-wheeled cab, as opposed to a (two-wheeled) Hansom cab.

  6. 6

    CanadaUSAn unpowered unit in a railroad train, used to hold either passengers or cargo.

    The conductor coupled the cars to the locomotive.

  7. 7

    A similar vehicle used in special contexts, such as mines, quarries, and mills.

  8. 8

    an individual vehicle, powered or unpowered, in a multiple unit.

    The 11:10 to London was operated by a 4-car diesel multiple unit.

  9. 9

    The first part of a cons in Lisp. The first element of a list.

noun

as CAR
  1. 1

    Abbreviation of carnitine.

  2. 2

    Initialism of chimeric antigen receptor.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Car in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchvoiture, auto, automobile, char (automobile, a vehicle steered by a driver)
GermanAuto, Automobil, Wagen, PKW, Karre (automobile, a vehicle steered by a driver), Kabine (moving, load-carrying component of an elevator)
Portuguesecarro, viatura, automóvel (automobile, a vehicle steered by a driver), elevador, monta-cargas (moving, load-carrying component of an elevator)
Spanishcoche, automóvil, auto, carro, máquina, mueble (El Norte) (automobile, a vehicle steered by a driver)

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 car come from?

Inherited from Middle English carre, borrowed from Anglo-Norman carre, from Old Northern French (compare Old French char), from Latin carrus (“two-wheeled baggage wagon”), from Gaulish *karros, from Proto-Celtic *karros (“wagon”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós (“vehicle”). Doublet of carrus and horse.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after car