cave
/keɪv/noun, verb, interjection
cave is spelled C-A-V-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,121st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, cave means “A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cave is caves.
How many letters and syllables are in cave?
| Letters | 4: C-A-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 16 times per million words; the 5,121st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| 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 cave?
Cave appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,121st 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 cave?
- US /keɪv/
- Australia /kæɪv/
- /kev/
As an interjection (“look out!; beware!”): /ˈkeɪvi/.
Cave 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-cave.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with cave?
8 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as cave from its last stressed vowel (/eɪv/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: evac.
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 cave
- caves plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- caving participle, present
- caved participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cave mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.
We found a cave on the mountainside where we could take shelter.
- 2
A hole, depression, or gap in earth or rock, whether natural or man-made.
- 3
A storage cellar, especially for wine or cheese.
This wine has been aged in our cave for thirty years.
- 4
A place of retreat, such as a man cave.
My room was a cozy cave where I could escape from my family.
- 5
A naturally-occurring cavity in bedrock which is large enough to be entered by an adult.
It was not strictly a cave, but a narrow fissure in the rock.
- 6
A shielded area where nuclear experiments can be carried out.
- 7
Debris, particularly broken rock, which falls into a drill hole and interferes with drilling.
- 8
A collapse or cave-in.
verb
- 1
To surrender.
He caved under pressure.
- 2
To collapse.
First the braces buckled, then the roof began to cave, then we ran.
- 3
To hollow out or undermine.
The levee has been severely caved by the river current.
- 4
To engage in the recreational exploration of caves.
- 5
In room-and-pillar mining, to extract a deposit of rock by breaking down a pillar which had been holding it in place.
The deposit is caved by knocking out the posts.
- 6
obsoleteTo work over tailings to dress small pieces of marketable ore.
- 7
obsoleteTo dwell in a cave.
interjection
- 1
UKlook out!; beware!
noun
- 1
Acronym of citizens against virtually everything; people who oppose the construction of any type of structure.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Cave in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | caverne, grotte , cave , antre , éboulement , se rendre |
| German | Höhle, Grotte , Achtung |
| Portuguese | caverna, gruta , render-se, ceder |
| Spanish | cueva, gruta |
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 cave come from?
From Middle English cave, borrowed from Old French cave, from Latin cava (“cavity”), from cavus (“hollow”). Cognate with Tocharian B kor (“throat”), Albanian cup (“odd, uneven”), Ancient Greek κύαρ (kúar, “eye of needle, earhole”), Old Armenian սոր (sor, “hole”), Sanskrit शून्य (śūnya, “empty, barren, zero”). Displaced native Old English sċræf. More at cavum, cavus and cage.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).