concave
/ˈkɑn.keɪv/adjective, noun, verb
concave is spelled C-O-N-C-A-V-E: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.0 times per million words in written English, the 28,214th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “concave vs convex” about 27,100 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, concave means “Curved like the inner surface of a sphere or bowl” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in concave?
| Letters | 7: C-O-N-C-A-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.0 times per million words; the 28,214th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is concave?
Concave appears 1.0 times per million words in written English, the 28,214th 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 concave?
- UK /ˈkɒn.keɪv/
- UK /kɒnˈkeɪv/
- US /ˈkɑn.keɪv/
Concave has 2 syllables (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-concave.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with concave
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of concave
- more concave comparative
- most concave superlative
- concaves plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- concaving participle, present
- concaved participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does concave mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Curved like the inner surface of a sphere or bowl.
- 2
Not convex; having at least one internal angle greater than 180 degrees.
- 3
Satisfying the property that all segments connecting two points on the function's graph lie below the function.
- 4
Hollow; empty.
noun
- 1
A concave surface or curve.
- 2
The vault of the sky.
- 3
One of the celestial spheres of the Ptolemaic or geocentric model of the world.
Aristotle makes [Fire] to move to the concave of the Moon. - Thomas Salusbury (1661).
- 4
An element of a curved grid used to separate desirable material from tailings or chaff in mining and harvesting.
- 5
An indentation running along the base of a surfboard, intended to increase lift.
- 6
An indented area on the top of a skateboard, providing a position for foot placement and increasing board strength.
- 7
A playing card made concave for use in cheating.
verb
- 1
To render concave, or increase the degree of concavity.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Concave in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense curved inward:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | concave |
| German | konkav, nach innen gewölbt, eingewölbt |
| Portuguese | côncavo |
| Spanish | cóncavo |
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 concave come from?
From Middle English concave, from Old French concave, from Latin concavus.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).