career

/kəˈɹɪə/

//kəˈɹɪə// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"career" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“career” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #896. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#896
frequency rank, English
5,599
“C” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - One’s calling in life; one's working occupation or profession, especially when pursued seriously or over a long period of time.

Corpus desk

Index EN-career · career · English

career · rank #896 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #896
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,599
  • PHOTO-FINISH built

Nearest frequency peer: built (-1 rank slots)

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.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “career”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “career” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

career vs carr
67% similar
career vs Cree
50% similar
career vs cares
67% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for career
PropertyValue
Headwordcareer
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/kəˈɹɪə/
Letters6
Frequency rank#896
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “career”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).careerlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “built” (#895), “changed” (#897), “began” (#894). Among 5,599 “C” headwords, “career” is #896. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around career (IPA /kəˈɹɪə/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #896 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 8 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for career, with forms such as "acreer", "caerer", and "careerr". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "carr", "Cree", "cares", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: Mid 16th century, from French carrière (“road; racecourse”), from Italian carriera, from Old Occitan carreira, from Late Latin carrāria based on Latin carrus (“wheeled vehicle”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós, from *ḱers- (“to run”); alternati… The correct English form is career, spelled C-A-R-E-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    One’s calling in life; one's working occupation or profession, especially when pursued seriously or over a long period of time.
  2. 2
    The course, evolution, and ongoing advancement of one's working life, especially in one particular field.
  3. 3
    The general course of one's action or conduct in life, or in a particular area of life.
  4. 4
    Speed.
  5. 5
    A jouster's path during a joust.
  6. 6
    A short gallop of a horse.
  7. 7
    The flight of a hawk.
  8. 8
    A racecourse; the ground run over.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. When they’ve tortured and scared you for twenty-odd years, / Then they expect you to pick a career
  2. Washington’s career as a soldier

Etymology

Mid 16th century, from French carrière (“road; racecourse”), from Italian carriera, from Old Occitan carreira, from Late Latin carrāria based on Latin carrus (“wheeled vehicle”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós, from *ḱers- (“to run”); alternatively, from Middle French carriere, from Old Occitan.

This word in other languages

carrera(Español)carrière(Français)Karriere(Deutsch)carreira(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • acreer
  • caerer
  • careerr
  • carere
  • carreer
  • ccareer
  • craeer

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of career - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

acreer2caerer2careerr1carere2carreer1ccareer1craeer2
Edit distance from "career"

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

How do you spell "career"?
"career" is spelled C-A-R-E-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is /kəˈɹɪə/.
What does "career" mean?
As a noun, "career" means: One’s calling in life; one's working occupation or profession, especially when pursued seriously or over a long period of time.
What words are commonly confused with "career"?
"career" is commonly confused with "carr", "Cree", "cares". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "career"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "career" is /kəˈɹɪə/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "career"?
Mid 16th century, from French carrière (“road; racecourse”), from Italian carriera, from Old Occitan carreira, from Late Latin carrāria based on Latin carrus (“wheeled vehicle”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós, from *ḱers- (“to run”);... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "career", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

figure#904simply#887simple#886modern#908

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

built7 variantsbegan7 variantsdaily7 variantsseven7 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list