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PlainSpell

curve

/kɚv/noun, verb

curve is spelled C-U-R-V-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,679th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, curve means “A bend, such as in a road” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of curve is curves.

How many letters and syllables are in curve?

Letters5: C-U-R-V-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing14 times per million words; the 5,679th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

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 curve?

Curve appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,679th 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 curve?

  • UK /kɜːv/
  • UK [ˈkʰɜːv]
  • US /kɚv/

Curve 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-curve.wav, En-us-curve.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with curve?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as curve from its last stressed vowel (/əɹv/):

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 curve

  • cuhve
  • curves plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • curving participle, present
  • curved participle, past

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

What does curve mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A bend, such as in a road.

    You should slow down when approaching a curve.

  2. 2

    A simple figure containing no straight portions and no angles; a curved line.

    She scribbled a curve on the paper.

  3. 3

    A grading system based on the scale of performance of a group used to normalize a right-skewed grade distribution (with more lower scores) into a bell curve, so that more can receive higher grades, regardless of their actual knowledge of the subject.

    The teacher was nice and graded the test on a curve.

  4. 4

    nonstandardA grading system where all raw scores are raised by a set number of points.

  5. 5

    A continuous map from a one-dimensional space to a multidimensional space.

  6. 6

    A one-dimensional figure of non-zero length; the graph of a continuous map from a one-dimensional space.

  7. 7

    An algebraic curve; a polynomial relation of the planar coordinates.

  8. 8

    A one-dimensional continuum.

verb

  1. 1

    To bend; to crook.

    to curve a line

  2. 2

    To cause to swerve from a straight course.

    to curve a ball in pitching it

  3. 3

    To bend or turn gradually from a given direction.

    the road curves to the right

  4. 4

    To grade on a curve (bell curve of a normal distribution).

    The teacher will curve the test.

  5. 5

    slangTo reject, to turn down romantic advances.

    I was once curved three times by the same woman.

adjective

  1. 1

    obsoleteBent without angles; crooked; curved.

    a curve line

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

Curve in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcourbe (gentle bend), courbes (informal: usually in plural: attractive…), courber (bend, crook)
GermanKurve (gentle bend), Kurven (informal: usually in plural: attractive…), biegen, verbiegen (bend, crook), Linie (geometry: one-dimensional figure)
Portuguesecurva (gentle bend), curvas (informal: usually in plural: attractive…), curvar, envergar (bend, crook)
Spanishcurva (gentle bend), curvas (informal: usually in plural: attractive…), curvar, encorvar, corvar, curvear (bend, crook)

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 curve come from?

Attested since the 1690s, from Latin curvus (“bent, curved”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to bend, curve, turn”) + *-wós. Doublet of curb, shrink, carcer, and cancer.

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

What to look up after curve