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SWEDISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

karl.

a “real man”, a capable man, a full grown man (compare kraftkarl (“strongman”), karlaktig (“in manly fashion”))

4 characters1 syllables approx.Svenska language

Meaning & usage

noun/kɑːr/

  1. a “real man”, a capable man, a full grown man (compare kraftkarl (“strongman”), karlaktig (“in manly fashion”))

    common-gender
    jag behöver en karl i huset

  2. man (male human)

    common-gender
    Bra karl reder sig själv

  3. husband

    common-gender

  4. member of a work force, employed to perform some particularly heavy or physically demanding job

    common-gender · masculine
Where this word comes from

From Late Old Swedish karl, kar, kall, from Old Norse karl (attested on runestones as ᚴᛅᚱᛚ (karl)), from Proto-Norse *ᚲᚨᚱᛁᛚᚨᛉ (*karilaʀ), from Proto-Germanic *karilaz.

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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.