hubcap
/ˈhʌbˌkæp/noun
hubcap is a noun meaning “A decorative and protective disk that covers the hub of a motor car wheel” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled H-U-B-C-A-P and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 14 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of hubcap is hubcaps.
What does hubcap mean?
noun
- 1
A decorative and protective disk that covers the hub of a motor car wheel.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce hubcap?
- US /ˈhʌbˌkæp/
Hubcap 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-hubcap.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of hubcap
- hubcaps plural
- hub cap
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is hubcap?
Hubcap appears about once in every 14 million words in written English, the 113,022nd 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).
Hubcap in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense decorative disk for wheels:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | chapeau de roue, enjoliveur |
| German | Radkappe |
| Portuguese | calota |
| Spanish | copa, taza, tapabocinas, tapacubos, taparruedas, tapón |
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 hubcap come from?
From hub + cap.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).