transfer
/tɹænsˈfɚ/verb, noun
transfer is spelled T-R-A-N-S-F-E-R. The wrong spelling people search most is tranfer: about 460 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 43 of all searches for the word. Transfer is a verb meaning “To move or pass from one place, person or thing to another”.
How many letters and syllables are in transfer?
| Letters | 8: T-R-A-N-S-F-E-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 52 times per million words; the 1,941st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, tranfer, about 460 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| 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 do you spell transfer?
Transfer is spelled T-R-A-N-S-F-E-R. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 44 of the searches for transfer in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is transfer?
Transfer appears 52 times per million words in written English, the 1,941st 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 transfer?
- UK /tɹɑːnsˈfɜː/
- UK /tɹænsˈfɜː/
- US /tɹænsˈfɚ/
As a noun (“The act of conveying or removing something from one place…”): /ˈtɹɑːns.fɜː/, /ˈtɹæns.fɜː/, /ˈtɹæns.fɚ/.
Transfer has 2 syllables (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-transfer_(verb).wav, En-us-transfer.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with transfer?
2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as transfer from its last stressed vowel (/əɹ/):
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 transfer
- transfers present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- transferring participle, present
- transferred participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
- xfer
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does transfer mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To move or pass from one place, person or thing to another.
to transfer the laws of one country to another; to transfer suspicion
- 2
To convey the impression of (something) from one surface to another.
to transfer drawings or engravings to a lithographic stone
- 3
To exit one mass transit vehicle and board another (typically one belonging to a different line or mode of transportation) to continue a journey.
transfer to the Blue Line
- 4
To be or become transferred.
- 5
To arrange for something to belong to or be officially controlled by somebody else.
The title to land is transferred by deed.
- 6
To 'carry' or apply anything (a concept, a name...) from one type of thing to a different type of thing.
The ancient Romans named the planet Mars by transferring that name from a deity of their pantheon to the planet appearing in the night sky.
- 7
To move from a wheelchair to another seating surface, or to a wheelchair from another seating surface.
noun
- 1
The act of conveying or removing something from one place, person or thing to another.
- 2
An instance of conveying or removing from one place, person or thing to another; a transferal.
- 3
An act of exiting one mass transit vehicle and boarding another (typically one belonging to a different line or mode of transportation) to continue a journey.
Free transfers can be made between the Red and Orange Lines by walking from one of the station's platforms to another; in addition, riders using a fare card also get free transfers between bus and subway at the station.
- 4
A paper receipt given to a rider of one bus (and historically also certain elevated or subway lines), allowing free entry onto another bus to continue a journey.
- 5
A design conveyed by contact from one surface to another; a heat transfer.
- 6
A soldier removed from one troop, or body of troops, and placed in another.
- 7
A pathological process by which a unilateral morbid condition on being abolished on one side of the body makes its appearance in the corresponding region upon the other side.
- 8
The conveying of genetic material from one cell to another.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate transfer?
Wiktionary records 5 abbreviations of transfer: ADT, transf, transf., trfr., xfer.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Transfer in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | transférer , transfert |
| German | übertragen , Übertragung, Versetzung, Überweisung , versetzen |
| Portuguese | transferir , transferência |
| Spanish | transferir, trasladar , transferencia , calcar, imprimir , calco |
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 transfer come from?
From Latin trānsferō (“to bear across”). Distant doublet of translate. See also collate and confer, delate and defer, as well as prelate and prefer among others.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).