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PlainSpell

carve

/kɑɹv/verb, noun

carve is spelled C-A-R-V-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.6 times per million words in written English, the 16,896th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, carve means “To cut meat in order to serve it” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in carve?

Letters5: C-A-R-V-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.6 times per million words; the 16,896th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 carve?

Carve appears 2.6 times per million words in written English, the 16,896th 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 carve?

  • US /kɑɹv/
  • UK /kɑːv/

Carve has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-carve.ogg, En-uk-carve.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with carve

Sounds like: calve (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with carve?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as carve from its last stressed vowel (/ɑɹv/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: crave, caver.

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 carve

  • carves present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • carving participle, present
  • carved past, participle

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

What does carve mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    archaicTo cut.

  2. 2

    To cut meat in order to serve it.

    You carve the roast and I’ll serve the vegetables.

  3. 3

    To shape to sculptural effect; to produce (a work) by cutting, or to cut (a material) into a finished work, especially with cuts that are curved rather than only straight slices.

    to carve a name into a tree

  4. 4

    To perform a series of turns without pivoting, so that the tip and tail of the snowboard take the same path.

  5. 5

    To take or make, as by cutting; to provide.

  6. 6

    To lay out; to contrive; to design; to plan.

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteA carucate.

    Whereof John de Ditton holds a moiety of the village for half a carve of land.

  2. 2

    The act of carving

    Give that turkey a careful carve.

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

Carve in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Germanschneiden (to cut), tranchieren, zerlegen (to cut meat), einkerben, kerben, schnitzen (to shape to sculptural effect)
Portuguesecortar, esculpir (to cut), trinchar (to cut meat), talhar, entalhar (to shape to sculptural effect)
Spanishcortar (to cut), trinchar (to cut meat), tallar, esculpir, entallar (to shape to sculptural effect)

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 carve come from?

From Middle English kerven, from Old English ceorfan, from Proto-West Germanic *kerban, from Proto-Germanic *kerbaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to scratch”). Cognate with West Frisian kerve, Dutch kerven, Low German karven, German kerben (“to notch”); also Old Prussian gīrbin (“number”), Old Church Slavonic жрѣбии (žrěbii, “lot, tallymark”), Ancient Greek γράφειν (gráphein, “to scratch, etch”).

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

What to look up after carve