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PlainSpell

spar

/spɑɹ/noun, verb

spar is spelled S-P-A-R: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 26,776th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, spar means “A rafter of a roof” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of spar is spars.

How many letters and syllables are in spar?

Letters4: S-P-A-R
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.1 times per million words; the 26,776th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 spar?

Spar appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 26,776th 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 spar?

  • UK /spɑː/
  • US /spɑɹ/
  • US [spɑɹ]

Spar 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-spar.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with spar

Sounds like: spa (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with spar?

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

Spelled with the same letters in another order: rasp.

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 spar

  • spars plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • sparring participle, present
  • sparred participle, past

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

What does spar mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A rafter of a roof.

  2. 2

    A thick pole or piece of wood.

  3. 3

    obsoleteA bar of wood used to fasten a door.

  4. 4

    Any linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff.

  5. 5

    A beam-like structural member that supports ribs in an aircraft wing or other airfoil.

  6. 6

    A sparring session; a preliminary fight, as in boxing or cock-fighting.

  7. 7

    A friend, a mate, a pal.

  8. 8

    Any of various microcrystalline minerals, of light, translucent, or transparent appearance, which are easily cleft.

  9. 9

    Any crystal with readily discernible faces.

verb

  1. 1

    obsoleteTo bolt, bar.

  2. 2

    To supply or equip (a vessel) with spars.

  3. 3

    To fight, especially as practice for martial arts or hand-to-hand combat.

  4. 4

    To strike with the feet or spurs, as cocks do.

  5. 5

    To contest in words; to wrangle.

phrase

as SPAR
  1. 1

    UKInitialism of signal passed at red.

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

Spar in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Spanishposte (thick pole), tranca (bar to fasten door), larguero (aeronautics: beam-like structural member), espato (any crystal with readily discernible faces)
GermanHolm, Flügelholm (aeronautics: beam-like structural member), Spat (any crystal with readily discernible faces), Spiere, Rundholz (nautical: linear object used as a mast, sprit…)
Frenchlongeron (aeronautics: beam-like structural member), spath (any crystal with readily discernible faces)

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 spar come from?

From Middle English sparre (“spar, rafter, beam”) (noun), sparren (“to close, bar”) (verb), from Middle Dutch sparre or Middle Low German Sparre, all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sparrô (“stake, beam”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)par- (“beam, log”). Compare Dutch spar (“balk”), German Sparren (“rafter, spar”), Danish sparre (“spar”), Albanian shparr, shpardh (“kind of oak”). Perhaps also compare spear.

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

What to look up after spar