caraway
/ˈkæɹəˌweɪ/
"caraway" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“caraway” is uncommon English (frequency #57,278 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #57,278
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A biennial plant of species Carum carvi, native to Europe and Asia, mainly grown for its seed to be used as a culinary spice. (The convention of putting caraway seeds into rye bread sometimes cause...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | caraway |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkæɹəˌweɪ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #57,278 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “caraway” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
caraway is uncommon English at frequency #57,278 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkæɹəˌweɪ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for caraway in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English caraway, carewey, carwey, from Medieval Latin carui, from Arabic كَرَاوِيَا (karāwiyā), via Aramaic from Ancient Greek καρώ (karṓ), κάρον (káron, “caraway”). The correct English form is caraway, spelled C-A-R-A-W-A-Y.
Definition
- 1A biennial plant of species Carum carvi, native to Europe and Asia, mainly grown for its seed to be used as a culinary spice. (The convention of putting caraway seeds into rye bread sometimes causes confusion about so-called rye seeds.)
- 2The seed-like fruit of the caraway plant.
- 3A cake or sweetmeat containing caraway seeds.
Etymology
From Middle English caraway, carewey, carwey, from Medieval Latin carui, from Arabic كَرَاوِيَا (karāwiyā), via Aramaic from Ancient Greek καρώ (karṓ), κάρον (káron, “caraway”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “caraway”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-R-A-W-A-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkæɹəˌweɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.