cedar
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "cedar", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "cedar" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "cedar" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
cedar is aEnglishnoun. It means: A coniferous tree of the genus Cedrus in the family Pinaceae. Pronounced /ˈsiː.də/. Often confused with char and czar.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cedar |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsiː.də/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #10,178 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 17 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cedar is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsiː.də/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,178 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for cedar, with forms such as "ccedar", "cdear", and "ceadr". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 17 confusable-pair relationships, "char", "czar", "cede", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English cedre, probably from Old French cedre, from Latin cedrus, from Ancient Greek κέδρος (kédros). Some suggest that the Middle English word was partially from Old English ċeder, but the gap in attestation between the two words makes this pro… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is cedar, spelled C-E-D-A-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A coniferous tree of the genus Cedrus in the family Pinaceae.
- 2A coniferous tree of the family Cupressaceae, especially of the genera Juniperus, Cupressus, Calocedrus, or Thuja.
- 3A flowering tree of the family Meliaceae, especially of the genera Cedrela or Toona.
- 4The aromatic wood from a tree of genus Cedrus or from any of several not closely related trees.
Etymology
From Middle English cedre, probably from Old French cedre, from Latin cedrus, from Ancient Greek κέδρος (kédros). Some suggest that the Middle English word was partially from Old English ċeder, but the gap in attestation between the two words makes this proposal unlikely. Possible doublet of citrus.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccedar,cdear,ceadr,cedarr,ceddar,cedra,ecdar
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for cedar
Misspelling Variants of "cedar"
Frequency rank: #10,178 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: