cartel
/kɑːˈtɛl/
"cartel" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cartel” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #13,292 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #13,292
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A group of businesses or nations that collude to limit competition within an industry or market.
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 | cartel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kɑːˈtɛl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #13,292 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cartel” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cartel is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kɑːˈtɛl/. Corpus data places it at rank #13,292 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for cartel, with forms such as "acrtel", "caretl", and "carrtel". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cate", "cruel", "caste", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: In the business sense, borrowed from German Kartell, first used by Eugen Richter in 1871 in the Reichstag. In the political sense, which was the vehicle for this metaphor, the English sense, like the German sense, was borrowed from French cartel in the sixt… The correct English form is cartel, spelled C-A-R-T-E-L.
Definition
- 1A group of businesses or nations that collude to limit competition within an industry or market.
- 2A combination of political groups (notably parties) for common action.
- 3A written letter of defiance or challenge.
- 4An official agreement concerning the exchange of prisoners.
- 5A ship used to negotiate with an enemy in time of war, and to exchange prisoners.
Etymology
In the business sense, borrowed from German Kartell, first used by Eugen Richter in 1871 in the Reichstag. In the political sense, which was the vehicle for this metaphor, the English sense, like the German sense, was borrowed from French cartel in the sixteenth century, from Italian cartello, diminutive of carta (“card, page”), from Latin charta.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: acrtel,caretl,carrtel,cartell,cartle,carttel,catrel,ccartel,cratel
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cartel - 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 “cartel”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-R-T-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kɑːˈtɛl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cate” - see the side-by-side comparison. cartel vs cate
- 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.