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PlainSpell

card

/kɑɹd/noun, verb

card is spelled C-A-R-D: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 110 times per million words in written English, the 972nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, card means “A playing card” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of card is cards.

How many letters and syllables are in card?

Letters4: C-A-R-D
Syllables1
In writing110 times per million words; the 972nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is card?

Card appears 110 times per million words in written English, the 972nd 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 card?

  • /kɑːd/
  • [kʰɑːd]
  • US /kɑɹd/

Card has one syllable.

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)-card.wav, En-us-card.ogg, En-au-card.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with card

Also written: chard.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with card?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as card from its last stressed vowel (/ɑɹd/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: drac, cadr.

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 card

  • cards plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • carding participle, present
  • carded participle, past

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

What does card mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A playing card.

  2. 2

    Any game using playing cards; a card game.

    He played cards with his friends.

  3. 3

    A resource or argument, used to achieve a purpose. (See play the something card.)

    The government played the Orange card to get support for their Ireland policy.

  4. 4

    Any flat, normally rectangular piece of stiff paper, plastic, etc.

  5. 5

    A bank card.

  6. 6

    Any electronic payment (rather than a cash payment using notes, bills or coins).

    Cashier: "Cash or card? Customer: "I'm paying on my phone, so card."

  7. 7

    Paper that is thicker and more durable than normal writing or printing paper, but thinner and more flexible than paperboard, used for postcards, playing cards, etc.; card stock.

    Do you have any card? I want to make a poster.

  8. 8

    obsoleteA map or chart.

  9. 9

    datedMaterial with embedded short wire bristles.

  10. 10

    datedA comb- or brush-like device or tool to raise the nap on a fabric.

  11. 11

    A hand-held tool formed similarly to a hairbrush but with bristles of wire or other rigid material. It is used principally with raw cotton, wool, hair, or other natural fibers to prepare these materials for spinning into yarn or thread on a spinning wheel, with a whorl or other hand-held spindle. The card serves to untangle, clean, remove debris from, and lay the fibers straight.

  12. 12

    datedA machine for disentangling the fibres of wool prior to spinning.

  13. 13

    A roll or sliver of fibre (as of wool) delivered from a carding machine.

  14. 14

    Abbreviation of cardinal (“songbird”).

verb

  1. 1

    USTo check IDs, especially against a minimum age requirement.

    They have to card anybody who looks 21 or younger.

  2. 2

    datedTo play cards.

  3. 3

    To make (a stated score), as recorded on a scoring card.

    McIlroy carded a stellar nine-under-par 61 in the final round.

  4. 4

    To use a carding device to disentangle the fibres of wool prior to spinning.

  5. 5

    To scrape or tear someone’s flesh using a metal comb, as a form of torture.

  6. 6

    To comb with a card; to cleanse or disentangle by carding.

    to card a horse

  7. 7

    obsoleteTo clean or clear, as if by using a card.

  8. 8

    obsoleteTo mix or mingle, as with an inferior or weaker article.

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

Card in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcarte (resource or an argument, used to achieve a…), fiche (flat, normally rectangular piece of stiff…), allumé ((informal) amusing person), agenda (list of scheduled events), contrôler (to check IDs), carde (machine for disentagling the fibres of wool…)
GermanKarte (flat, normally rectangular piece of stiff…), kämmen, krempeln, kardätschen (to use carding device)
Portuguesecartão, carta (flat, normally rectangular piece of stiff…)
Spanishcarta, tarjeta (flat, normally rectangular piece of stiff…)

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 card come from?

From Middle English carde (“playing card”), from Old French carte, from Latin charta, from Ancient Greek χάρτης (khártēs, “paper, papyrus”). Doublet of carte and chart.

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

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