careful
/ˈkɛɹfəl/
"careful" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“careful” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,519 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #2,519
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Taking care; attentive to potential danger, error or harm; cautious.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | careful |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈkɛɹfəl/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #2,519 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “careful” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for careful is 7 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkɛɹfəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,519 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for careful, with forms such as "acreful", "caerful", and "carefful". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "carefully", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English careful, from Old English carful; equivalent to care + -ful. The correct English form is careful, spelled C-A-R-E-F-U-L.
Definition
- 1Taking care; attentive to potential danger, error or harm; cautious.
- 2Conscientious and painstaking; meticulous.
- 3Full of care or grief; sorrowful, sad.
- 4Full of cares or anxiety; worried, troubled.
Etymology
From Middle English careful, from Old English carful; equivalent to care + -ful.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: acreful,caerful,carefful,careflu,carefull,careufl,carfeul,carreful,ccareful,craeful
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of careful - 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.
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 “careful”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-R-E-F-U-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkɛɹfəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “carefully” - see the side-by-side comparison. careful vs carefully
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.