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PlainSpell

crater

/ˈkɹeɪ.tɚ/noun, verb

crater is spelled C-R-A-T-E-R: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 3.5 times per million words in written English, the 13,897th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, crater means “A hemispherical pit created by the impact of a meteorite or other object” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of crater is craters.

How many letters and syllables are in crater?

Letters6: C-R-A-T-E-R
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing3.5 times per million words; the 13,897th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 crater?

Crater appears 3.5 times per million words in written English, the 13,897th 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 crater?

  • UK /ˈkɹeɪ.tə(ɹ)/
  • US /ˈkɹeɪ.tɚ/

As a noun (“Alternative form of creature”): /ˈkɹeː.təɹ/.

Crater 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-crater.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with crater

Also written: creature.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with crater?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as crater from its last stressed vowel (/eɪtəɹ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: carter, tracer.

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 crater

  • craters plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • cratering participle, present
  • cratered participle, past

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

What does crater mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A hemispherical pit created by the impact of a meteorite or other object.

  2. 2

    The basin-like opening or mouth of a volcano, through which the chief eruption comes; similarly, the mouth of a geyser, about which a cone of silica is often built up.

  3. 3

    The pit left by the explosion of a mine or bomb.

  4. 4

    informalAny large, roughly circular depression or hole.

  5. 5

    Alternative spelling of krater (“vessel for mixing water and wine”).

  6. 6

    A worker who packs things in crates.

    He was hired in January 1987 as a crater and packer at the Renfrew plant and is still employed.

  7. 7

    IrelandScotlandAlternative form of creature.

verb

  1. 1

    To form craters in a surface.

  2. 2

    To collapse catastrophically; to become devastated or completely destroyed.

  3. 3

    To crash or fall.

    He cratered into that snow bank about five seconds after his first lesson.

  4. 4

    To die from fall damage.

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

Crater in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcratère (astronomy: hemispherical pit)
GermanKrater (astronomy: hemispherical pit), einbrechen (to collapse catastrophically)
Portuguesecratera (astronomy: hemispherical pit)
Spanishcráter (astronomy: hemispherical pit)

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 crater come from?

First coined 1613, from Latin crātēr (“basin”), from Ancient Greek κρᾱτήρ (krātḗr, “mixing-bowl, wassail-bowl”).

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

What to look up after crater