carbonic acid

noun

"carbonic-acid" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“carbonic acid” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A weak unstable acid, H₂CO₃, known only in solution, and as carbonate salts; it is present in carbonated drinks, and sparkling wine, but decomposes to form carbon dioxide and water.

Corpus desk

Index EN-carbonic-acid · carbonic acid · English

carbonic acid · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "C" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

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.

Key facts for carbonic acid
PropertyValue
Headwordcarbonic acid
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “carbonic acid” in English

carbonic acidranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

carbonic acid is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

carbonic acid doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is carbonic acid, spelled C-A-R-B-O-N-I-C- -A-C-I-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    A weak unstable acid, H₂CO₃, known only in solution, and as carbonate salts; it is present in carbonated drinks, and sparkling wine, but decomposes to form carbon dioxide and water.
  2. 2
    Carbon dioxide.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Had she lived now, she would have talked of the last delightful lecture on gas, or the charming new treatise on carbonic acid; she would have studied German, and delighted in the society of "talented people."
  2. [I]t sank down through the air and poured over the ground in a manner rather liquid than gaseous, abandoning the hills, and streaming into the valleys and ditches and water-courses even as I have heard the carbonic acid gas that pours from volcanic clefts is wont to do.

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "carbonic acid"?
"carbonic acid" is spelled C-A-R-B-O-N-I-C- -A-C-I-D.
What does "carbonic acid" mean?
As a noun, "carbonic acid" means: A weak unstable acid, H₂CO₃, known only in solution, and as carbonate salts; it is present in carbonated drinks, and sparkling wine, but decomposes to form carbon dioxide and water.
What language does "carbonic acid" come from?
"carbonic acid" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list