polar
/ˈpoʊlɚ/adjective, noun
polar is spelled P-O-L-A-R: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 9.1 times per million words in written English, the 7,553rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, polar means “Of, relating to, measured from, or referred to a geographic pole (the North Pole or South Pole); within the Arctic or Antarctic circles” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in polar?
| Letters | 5: P-O-L-A-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 9.1 times per million words; the 7,553rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like | |
| 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 polar?
Polar appears 9.1 times per million words in written English, the 7,553rd 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 polar?
- UK /ˈpəʊ.lə/
- US /ˈpoʊlɚ/
- US [ˈpɔːlɝ]
Polar 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)-Vininn126-polar.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with polar
Sounds like: Poehler (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with polar?
11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as polar from its last stressed vowel (/oʊləɹ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: parol.
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 polar
- polars plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does polar mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of, relating to, measured from, or referred to a geographic pole (the North Pole or South Pole); within the Arctic or Antarctic circles.
- 2
Of an orbit that passes over, or near, one of these poles.
- 3
Having a dipole; ionic.
- 4
Of a coordinate system, specifying the location of a point in a plane by using a radius and an angle.
- 5
Having but two possible answers, yes and no.
- 6
Of or relating to a pole (extreme) on any spectrum or field, such as an ideologically pure dogmatic position as opposed to any syncretic integration or balancing of competing principles.
polar viewpoints
noun
- 1
The line joining the points of contact of tangents drawn to meet a curve from a point called the pole of the line.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Polar in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense relating to a geographic pole:
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 polar come from?
Learned borrowing from Late Latin polāris. By surface analysis, pole + -ar.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).