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carbon

/ˈkɑɹ.bən/noun, verb

carbon is spelled C-A-R-B-O-N: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,725th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, carbon means “The chemical element (symbol C) with an atomic number of 6. It can be found in pure form for example as graphite, a black, shiny and very soft…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of carbon is carbons.

How many letters and syllables are in carbon?

Letters6: C-A-R-B-O-N
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing35 times per million words; the 2,725th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
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 carbon?

Carbon appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,725th 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 carbon?

  • US /ˈkɑɹ.bən/
  • UK /ˈkɑːbən/

Carbon has 2 syllables (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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-carbon.wav, En-us-carbon.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Tesco250-carbon.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with carbon

Also written: carbone.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with carbon?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as carbon (/ɑɹbən/).

Spelled with the same letters in another order: corban, bancor.

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 carbon

  • carbons plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • carboning participle, present
  • carboned participle, past

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

What does carbon mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    The chemical element (symbol C) with an atomic number of 6. It can be found in pure form for example as graphite, a black, shiny and very soft material, or diamond, a colourless, transparent, crystalline solid and the hardest known material.

    All life as we know it has carbon as the backbone of many of its molecules; carbon’s tetravalence gives it special importance in biochemical molecular bonds.

  2. 2

    An atom of this element, in reference to a molecule containing it.

    A methane molecule is made up of a single carbon with four hydrogens.

  3. 3

    informalA sheet of carbon paper.

  4. 4

    informalA carbon copy.

    Please provide me with a carbon of your form.

  5. 5

    A fossil fuel that is made of impure carbon such as coal or charcoal.

  6. 6

    Soot.

    Every morning she cleaned the carbon from the lamp chimneys.

  7. 7

    Especially, hardened soot as a caked-on deposit.

    When you overhaul an engine, you need to remove the carbon from around the valve seats. The carbon buildup can be extensive.

  8. 8

    Ellipsis of carbon dioxide.

    carbon neutral

verb

  1. 1

    To send a carbon copy of an email message to.

    When I send it, I’ll carbon Julia so she’s aware.

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

Carbon in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcarbone (chemical element), charbon (fossil fuel made of impure carbon)
GermanKohlenstoff (chemical element), Kohle (fossil fuel made of impure carbon), Kohlepapier (informal: a sheet of carbon paper), Durchschlag (informal: carbon copy), Kohlendioxid (ecology: carbon dioxide)
Portuguesecarbono (chemical element), carvão (fossil fuel made of impure carbon), papel-carbono (informal: a sheet of carbon paper)
Spanishcarbono (chemical element), carbón (fossil fuel made of impure carbon), papel carbón (informal: a sheet of carbon paper)

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 carbon come from?

Borrowed from French carbone, coined by Antoine Lavoisier, from Latin carbō, carbōnem (“charcoal, coal”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kerh₃- (“to burn”).

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

What to look up after carbon