overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

card.

A playing card.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/kɑːd/England[kʰɑːd]England/kɑɹd/US[kʰɑɹd]US
  1. A playing card.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Any game using playing cards; a card game.

    countable · in-plural · uncountable
    He played cards with his friends.
  3. A resource or argument, used to achieve a purpose. (See play the something card.)

    countable · uncountable
    The government played the Orange card to get support for their Ireland policy.
    He accused them of playing the race card.
  4. Any flat, normally rectangular piece of stiff paper, plastic, etc.

    countable · uncountable
  5. A bank card.

    countable · uncountable
  6. Any electronic payment (rather than a cash payment using notes, bills or coins).

    countable · uncountable
    Cashier: "Cash or card? Customer: "I'm paying on my phone, so card."
  7. Paper that is thicker and more durable than normal writing or printing paper, but thinner and more flexible than paperboard, used for postcards, playing cards, etc.; card stock.

    uncountable
    Do you have any card? I want to make a poster.
  8. A map or chart.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  9. An amusing or entertaining person, often slightly eccentric.

    countable · informal · uncountable
  10. A list of scheduled events or of performers or contestants; chiefly used in professional wrestling.

    countable · uncountable
    What's on the card for tonight?
  11. A tabular presentation of the key statistics of an innings or match: batsmen’s scores and how they were dismissed, extras, total score and bowling figures.

    countable · uncountable
  12. A removable electronic device that may be inserted into a powered electronic device to provide additional capability.

    countable · uncountable
    He needed to replace the card his computer used to connect to the internet.
  13. Any of a set of pages or forms that the user can navigate between, and fill with data, in certain user interfaces.

    countable · uncountable
  14. A greeting card.

    countable · uncountable
    She gave her neighbors a card congratulating them on their new baby.
  15. A business card.

    countable · uncountable
    The realtor gave me her card so I could call if I had any questions about buying a house.
  16. A title card or intertitle: a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of the photographed action at various points, generally to convey character dialogue or descriptive narrative material related to the plot.

    countable · uncountable
  17. A test card.

    countable · uncountable
  18. In formal debating, a verbatim citation used as evidence for a point.

    countable · uncountable
  19. A published note, containing a brief statement, explanation, request, expression of thanks, etc.

    countable · dated · uncountable
    to put a card in the newspapers
  20. A printed programme.

    countable · dated · uncountable
  21. An attraction or inducement.

    broadly · countable · dated · figuratively · uncountable
    This will be a good card for the last day of the fair.
  22. Ellipsis of compass card.

    abbreviation · alt-of · countable · ellipsis · uncountable
  23. A perforated pasteboard or sheet-metal plate for warp threads, making part of the Jacquard apparatus of a loom.

    countable · uncountable
  24. A graph formed from a given graph by deleting one vertex.

    countable · uncountable
  25. An indicator card.

    countable · uncountable
  26. Ellipsis of report card.

    Philippines · abbreviation · alt-of · countable · ellipsis · uncountable
    Where's your card? I want to see your grades.
  27. A form signed by an employee to agree to representation by a union.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English carde (“playing card”), from Old French carte, from Latin charta, from Ancient Greek χάρτης (khártēs, “paper, papyrus”). Doublet of carte and chart.

verb/kɑːd/England[kʰɑːd]England/kɑɹd/US[kʰɑɹd]US
  1. To check IDs, especially against a minimum age requirement.

    US · transitive
    They have to card anybody who looks 21 or younger.
    I heard you don't get carded at the other liquor store.
  2. To play cards.

    dated
  3. To make (a stated score), as recorded on a scoring card.

    transitive
    McIlroy carded a stellar nine-under-par 61 in the final round.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English carde (“playing card”), from Old French carte, from Latin charta, from Ancient Greek χάρτης (khártēs, “paper, papyrus”). Doublet of carte and chart.

noun/kɑːd/England[kʰɑːd]England/kɑɹd/US[kʰɑɹd]US
  1. Material with embedded short wire bristles.

    dated · uncountable
  2. A comb- or brush-like device or tool to raise the nap on a fabric.

    countable · dated · uncountable
  3. A hand-held tool formed similarly to a hairbrush but with bristles of wire or other rigid material. It is used principally with raw cotton, wool, hair, or other natural fibers to prepare these materials for spinning into yarn or thread on a spinning wheel, with a whorl or other hand-held spindle. The card serves to untangle, clean, remove debris from, and lay the fibers straight.

    countable · uncountable
  4. A machine for disentangling the fibres of wool prior to spinning.

    countable · dated · uncountable
  5. A roll or sliver of fibre (as of wool) delivered from a carding machine.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English carde, Old French carde, from Old Occitan carda, deverbal from cardar, from Late Latin *carito, from Latin carō (“to comb with a card”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”).

verb/kɑːd/England[kʰɑːd]England/kɑɹd/US[kʰɑɹd]US
  1. To use a carding device to disentangle the fibres of wool prior to spinning.

  2. To scrape or tear someone’s flesh using a metal comb, as a form of torture.

  3. To comb with a card; to cleanse or disentangle by carding.

    transitive
    to card a horse
  4. To clean or clear, as if by using a card.

    figuratively · obsolete · transitive
  5. To mix or mingle, as with an inferior or weaker article.

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English carden, from Old French carder, from carde (“cotton card”); see Etymology 2 for more.

noun/kɑːd/England[kʰɑːd]England/kɑɹd/US[kʰɑɹd]US
  1. Abbreviation of cardinal (“songbird”).

    abbreviation · alt-of
noun/kɑːd/England[kʰɑːd]England/kɑɹd/US[kʰɑɹd]US
  1. Obsolete form of chard.

    alt-of · obsolete
FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

card has 4 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

card studiocard workshello, card

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.