radar
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "radar", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "radar" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "radar" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
radar is aEnglishnoun. It means: In full primary radar: a method of detecting a distant object and determining its position, velocity, or other characteristics by analysing radio waves (usually microwaves) which are sent towards t... Pronounced /ˈɹeɪdɑː/. It ranks #5,160 in English word frequency. Often confused with rear and roar.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | radar |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹeɪdɑː/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #5,160 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for radar is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹeɪdɑː/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,160 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for radar, with forms such as "ardar", "raadr", and "radarr". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "rear", "roar", "raja", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is derived from RADAR by anacronymic evolution. RADAR is an acronym of ra(dio) d(etection) a(nd) r(anging) which was coined by Lieutenant-Commander Samuel M. Tucker and Lieutenant-Commander F. R. Furth of the United States Navy in November 1940. Th… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is radar, spelled R-A-D-A-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1In full primary radar: a method of detecting a distant object and determining its position, velocity, or other characteristics by analysing radio waves (usually microwaves) which are sent towards the object and which reflect off its surfaces; also, the field of study of this method.
- 2In full primary radar: a method of detecting a distant object and determining its position, velocity, or other characteristics by analysing radio waves (usually microwaves) which are sent towards the object and which reflect off its surfaces; also, the field of study of this method.
- 3In full primary radar: a method of detecting a distant object and determining its position, velocity, or other characteristics by analysing radio waves (usually microwaves) which are sent towards the object and which reflect off its surfaces; also, the field of study of this method.
- 4In full primary radar: a method of detecting a distant object and determining its position, velocity, or other characteristics by analysing radio waves (usually microwaves) which are sent towards the object and which reflect off its surfaces; also, the field of study of this method.
- 5Often preceded by a descriptive word: a natural (for example, in an animal such as a bat) or human-made detection method based on the analysis of reflected signals other than radio waves, as light waves or sound waves; (countable) an instance of this.
- 6A superior ability to detect something; an awareness, an intuition.
Etymology
The noun is derived from RADAR by anacronymic evolution. RADAR is an acronym of ra(dio) d(etection) a(nd) r(anging) which was coined by Lieutenant-Commander Samuel M. Tucker and Lieutenant-Commander F. R. Furth of the United States Navy in November 1940. The verb is probably derived from the noun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ardar,raadr,radarr,raddar,radra,rdaar,rradar
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for radar
Misspelling Variants of "radar"
Frequency rank: #5,160 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: