tear
/tɛɹ/verb, noun
tear is spelled T-E-A-R: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 22 times per million words in written English, the 3,939th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “tare vs tear” about 5,400 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, tear means “To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in tear?
| Letters | 4: T-E-A-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 22 times per million words; the 3,939th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people 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); 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 tear?
Tear appears 22 times per million words in written English, the 3,939th 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 tear?
- UK /tɛə/
- British /tɛː/
- US /tɛɹ/
As a noun (“A drop of clear, salty liquid produced from the eyes by…”): /tɪə/, /tɪː/, /tɪəɹ/.
Tear 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-tear-verb.ogg, En-us-tear-noun.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with tear
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: tare (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with tear?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as tear from its last stressed vowel (/ɛɹ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: rate, tare, aret.
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 tear
- tears present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- tearing participle, present
- tore past
- torn participle, past
- teared participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does tear mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
He tore his coat on the nail.
- 2
To injure as if by pulling apart.
He tore some muscles in a weight-lifting accident.
- 3
To destroy or reduce abstract unity or coherence, such as social, political or emotional.
He was torn by conflicting emotions.
- 4
To make (an opening) with force or energy.
A piece of debris tore a tiny straight channel through the satellite.
- 5
To remove by tearing, or with sudden great force.
Tear the coupon out of the newspaper.
- 6
To demolish.
The slums were torn down to make way for the new development.
- 7
To become torn, especially accidentally.
My dress has torn.
- 8
To move or act with great speed, energy, or violence.
He went tearing down the hill at 90 miles per hour.
- 9
To produce tears.
Her eyes began to tear in the harsh wind.
noun
- 1
A hole or break caused by tearing.
A small tear is easy to mend, if it is on the seam.
- 2
slangA rampage.
to go on a tear
- 3
A drop of clear, salty liquid produced from the eyes by crying or irritation.
Big tears streamed from Lisa's eyes, rolling down her cheeks.
- 4
Something in the form of a transparent drop of fluid matter; also, a solid, transparent, tear-shaped drop, as of some balsams or resins.
- 5
A partially vitrified bit of clay in glass.
- 6
That which causes or accompanies tears; a lament; a dirge.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Tear in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | déchirer , détacher , démolir , se déchirer , déchirure , larme |
| German | reißen, zerreißen , herausreißen, abreißen , Riss , Träne |
| Portuguese | rasgar , destacar, arrancar , demolir , rasgo, fenda |
| Spanish | rasgar, desgarrar, irrumpir , desgarrarse , desgarrón, rasgón |
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 tear come from?
From Middle English teren, from Old English teran (“to tear, lacerate”), from Proto-Germanic *teraną (“to tear, tear apart, rip”), from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to tear, tear apart”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).