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PlainSpell

smart

/smɑɹt/verb, adjective, noun

smart is spelled S-M-A-R-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 68 times per million words in written English, the 1,562nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, smart means “To hurt or sting” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in smart?

Letters5: S-M-A-R-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing68 times per million words; the 1,562nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
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 smart?

Smart appears 68 times per million words in written English, the 1,562nd 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 smart?

  • US /smɑɹt/
  • UK /smɑːt/

Smart 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-us-smart.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with smart?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as smart from its last stressed vowel (/ɑɹt/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: stram.

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 smart

  • smarts present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • smarting participle, present
  • smarted past, participle
  • smarter comparative
  • smartest superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does smart mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To hurt or sting.

    After being hit with a pitch, the batter exclaimed "Ouch, my arm smarts!"

  2. 2

    To cause a smart or sting in.

  3. 3

    To feel a pungent pain of mind; to feel sharp pain or grief; to be punished severely; to feel the sting of evil.

adjective

  1. 1

    Exhibiting social ability or cleverness.

  2. 2

    informalExhibiting intellectual knowledge, such as that found in books.

  3. 3

    Equipped with intelligent behaviour (digital/computer technology).

    smart car

  4. 4

    Good-looking; well dressed; fine; fashionable.

    a smart outfit

  5. 5

    Cleverly shrewd and humorous in a way that may be rude and disrespectful.

    He became tired of his girlfriend's smart remarks.

  6. 6

    Sudden and intense.

    There is a smart shower at 5 P.M., and in the midst of it a hummingbird is busy about the flowers in the garden, unmindful of it, though you would think that each big drop that struck him would be a serious accident.

  7. 7

    Causing sharp pain; stinging.

  8. 8

    Sharp; keen; poignant.

    a smart pain

noun

  1. 1

    A sharp, quick, lively pain; a sting.

  2. 2

    Mental pain or suffering; grief; affliction.

  3. 3

    Clipping of smart money.

  4. 4

    datedslangA dandy; one who is smart in dress; one who is brisk, vivacious, or clever.

  5. 5

    A fan of professional wrestling who is aware of kayfabe and the scripted nature of the competition.

noun

as SMART
  1. 1

    Acronym of self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology: a monitoring system included in computer HDDs and SSDs in order to detect and report various indicators of drive reliability with the intent of anticipating imminent hardware failures.

adjective

as SMART
  1. 1

    An acronym for remembering desirable characteristics for goal-setting: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timebound. (See SMART criteria on Wikipedia.Wikipedia)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Smart in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpiquer, souffrir, provoquer une douleur aiguë (to hurt or sting), habile (exhibiting social ability or cleverness), intelligent (exhibiting intellectual knowledge, such as that…), élégant (good-looking)
Germanschmerzen (to hurt or sting), klug, intelligent, gescheit (exhibiting intellectual knowledge, such as that…)
Portuguesedoer (to hurt or sting), esperto (exhibiting social ability or cleverness), inteligente (exhibiting intellectual knowledge, such as that…), elegante (good-looking)
Spanishescocer, doler (to hurt or sting), vivo, vivaracho (exhibiting social ability or cleverness), listo, intelectual (exhibiting intellectual knowledge, such as that…)

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 smart come from?

From Middle English smerten, from Old English *smeortan (“to smart”), from Proto-West Germanic *smertan, from Proto-Germanic *smertaną (“to hurt, ache”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)merd- (“to bite, sting”). Cognate with Scots smert, Dutch smarten, German schmerzen, Danish smerte, Swedish smärta.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after smart