orca
/ˈoɹkə/noun
orca is spelled O-R-C-A: 4 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,549th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, orca means “A sea mammal (Orcinus orca) related to dolphins and porpoises, commonly called the killer whale” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of orca is orcas.
How many letters and syllables are in orca?
| Letters | 4: O-R-C-A |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 31,549th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| 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 orca?
Orca appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,549th 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 orca?
- US /ˈoɹkə/
- UK /ˈɔːkə/
Orca 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-ca-orca.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with orca?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as orca (/oɹkə/).
Spelled with the same letters in another order: arco, acro.
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 orca
- orcas plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does orca mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A sea mammal (Orcinus orca) related to dolphins and porpoises, commonly called the killer whale.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Orca in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense ''Orcinus orca'':
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | épaulard, orque |
| German | Schwertwal, Mörderwal, Killerwal |
| Portuguese | orca |
| Spanish | orca, orco, urca |
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 orca come from?
Learned borrowing from Latin orca (“tun, cask; whale”), see there for more. Although the origin is obscure, the sometimes-cited association with orcus (“underworld”) is folk-etymology. Doublet of orc.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).