charles
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
7 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "charles", 7-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 "charles" 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 "charles" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
Charles is aEnglishname. It means: A male given name from the Germanic languages. Pronounced /t͡ʃɑɹlz/. It ranks #1,748 in English word frequency. Often confused with charms and chases.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Charles |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Name |
| IPA | /t͡ʃɑɹlz/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #1,748 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Charles is 7 letters long, classified as aname, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /t͡ʃɑɹlz/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,748 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for Charles, with forms such as "cahrles", "ccharles", and "chalres". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "charms", "chases", "Charli", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French Charles, from Old French Charles, Carles, from Latin Carolus, from and also reinfluenced by Frankish and Old High German Karl, from Proto-Germanic *karilaz (“free man”); compare the English word churl and the German Kerl. In reference to the Ecu… 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 Charles, spelled C-H-A-R-L-E-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A male given name from the Germanic languages.
- 2A surname originating as a patronymic.
- 3A hamlet in Brayford parish, North Devon district, Devon, England (OS grid ref SS6832).
- 4A neighbourhood of Providence, Rhode Island, United States.
- 5Synonym of Floreana: an island of Galapagos, Ecuador.
Etymology
From French Charles, from Old French Charles, Carles, from Latin Carolus, from and also reinfluenced by Frankish and Old High German Karl, from Proto-Germanic *karilaz (“free man”); compare the English word churl and the German Kerl. In reference to the Ecuadorian island, a clipping of the original name King Charles's Island, granted in honor of Charles II of England.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cahrles,ccharles,chalres,charels,charless,charlles,charlse,charrles,chharles,chrales,hcarles
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for Charles
Misspelling Variants of "Charles"
Frequency rank: #1,748 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: