scar
/skɑɹ/noun, verb
scar is spelled S-C-A-R: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 5.9 times per million words in written English, the 10,028th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “scar vs scare” about 10 times a month (Bing, United States). As a noun, scar means “A permanent mark on the skin, sometimes caused by the healing of a wound” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of scar is scars.
How many letters and syllables are in scar?
| Letters | 4: S-C-A-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 5.9 times per million words; the 10,028th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| 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 common is scar?
Scar appears 5.9 times per million words in written English, the 10,028th 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 scar?
- US /skɑɹ/
- UK /skɑː(ɹ)/
Scar 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-ca-scar.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with scar
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with scar?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as scar from its last stressed vowel (/ɑɹ/):
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 scar
- scars plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- scarring participle, present
- scarred participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does scar mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A permanent mark on the skin, sometimes caused by the healing of a wound.
- 2
A permanent negative effect on someone's mind, caused by a traumatic experience.
- 3
Any permanent mark resulting from damage.
- 4
A cliff or rock outcrop.
- 5
A rock in the sea breaking out from the surface of the water.
- 6
A bare rocky place on the side of a hill or mountain.
- 7
A marine food fish, the scarus or parrotfish (family Scaridae).
verb
- 1
To mark the skin permanently.
- 2
To form a scar.
- 3
To affect deeply in a traumatic manner.
Seeing his parents die in a car crash scarred him for life.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Scar in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | cicatrice, balafre , cicatriser |
| German | Narbe , entstellen, verunstalten , traumatisieren |
| Portuguese | cicatriz , deixar cicatriz , marcar , cicatrizar |
| Spanish | alforza, facial chirlo, chirlazo , cicatriz |
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 scar come from?
From Middle English scar, scarre, a conflation of Old French escare (“scab”) (from Late Latin eschara, from Ancient Greek ἐσχάρα (eskhára, “scab left from a burn”), and thus a doublet of eschar) and Middle English skar (“incision, cut, fissure”) (from Old Norse skarð (“notch, chink, gap”), from Proto-Germanic *skardaz (“gap, cut, fragment”)). Akin to Old Norse skor (“notch, score”), Old English sċeard (“gap, cut, notch”). More at shard. Displaced native Old English dolg, dolgswæþ, and wundswaþu (“scar”). Not related to scarify.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).