guard
/ɡɑɹd/noun, verb
guard is spelled G-U-A-R-D. The wrong spelling people search most is gaurd: about 1,050 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Guard is a noun meaning “A person who, or thing that, protects or watches over something”. The plural of guard is guards.
How many letters and syllables are in guard?
| Letters | 5: G-U-A-R-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 54 times per million words; the 1,899th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, gaurd, about 1,050 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people 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); 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell guard?
Guard is spelled G-U-A-R-D. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for guard in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is guard?
Guard appears 54 times per million words in written English, the 1,899th 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 guard?
- UK /ɡɑːd/
- US /ɡɑɹd/
Guard 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: En-us-guard.ogg, EN-AU_ck1_guard.ogg, En-au-guard.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with guard
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: gard.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with guard?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as guard from its last stressed vowel (/ɑɹd/):
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 guard
- guards plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- guarding participle, present
- guarded participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does guard mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A person who, or thing that, protects or watches over something.
The prison guard unlocked the door of the cell. After completing the repairs, he replaced the sump guard.
- 2
IrelandA garda; a police officer.
- 3
A squad responsible for protecting something.
The president inspected the guard of honour.
- 4
An elite military unit in Russia, the former Soviet Union and several post-Soviet countries.
- 5
The part of a sword that protects the wielder's hand.
Holonym: hilt
- 6
A part of a machine which blocks access to dangerous parts.
The motorcycle mechanic removed the damaged chain guard.
- 7
A watchchain.
- 8
AustraliaA panel of a car that encloses the wheel area, especially the front wheels.
verb
- 1
To protect from danger; to secure against surprise, attack, or injury; to keep in safety; to defend.
All of the mountain passes are guarded by troops.
- 2
To keep watch over, in order to prevent escape or restrain from acts of violence, or the like.
Guard the prisoner.
- 3
To watch by way of caution or defense; to be cautious; to be in a state or position of defense or safety.
Careful people guard against mistakes.
- 4
To protect the edge of, especially with an ornamental border; hence, to face or ornament with lists, laces, etc.
- 5
To fasten by binding; to gird.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Guard in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | garde , protection , gardien, arrière , garder |
| German | Wächter , Schutz , schützen, bewachen , Parierstange |
| Portuguese | guarda , protetor , guardar, proteger, defender |
| Spanish | guarda, guardia, guardés, shafo, vigilante, celador |
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 guard come from?
From Middle English garde, from early Middle French or late Old French guarde (“a guardian, warden, keeper”) (whence modern French garde), from the verb guarder. Doublet of garda, which is from Irish.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).