car
noun
an automobile.
car
1 American
[kahr]
/ kɑr /
noun
-
cars
plural
-
an automobile.
-
a vehicle running on rails, as a streetcar or railroad car.
-
the part of an elevator, balloon, modern airship, etc., that carries the passengers, freight, etc.
-
British Dialect. any wheeled vehicle, as a farm cart or wagon.
-
Literary. a chariot, as of war or triumph.
-
Archaic. cart; carriage.
car
2
American
[kahr]
/ kɑr /
CAR
3
American
car.
4
American
abbreviation
car
1
British
/ kɑː /
noun
-
-
Also called: motorcar, automobile. a self-propelled road vehicle designed to carry passengers, esp one with four wheels that is powered by an internal-combustion engine
-
( as modifier )
car coat
-
-
a conveyance for passengers, freight, etc, such as a cable car or the carrier of an airship or balloon
-
a railway vehicle for passengers only, such as a sleeping car or buffet car
-
a railway carriage or van
-
the enclosed platform of a lift
-
a poetic word for chariot
CAR
2
British
abbreviation
Usage
What else does car mean? To most of us on the outside, a car is a vehicle with a motor and four wheels. But in prison slang, your car is your crew, especially when it comes to drugs, protection, and money-making.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of car1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English carre, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin carra (feminine singular), from Latin, neuter plural of carrum, variant of carrus “baggage cart, freight wagon,” from Gaulish; akin to Old Irish carr “wheeled vehicle”
Origin of car2
First recorded in 1375–1425; Middle English ( Scots ), from Scots Gaelic ceàrr “false, left, wrong”
Origin of CAR3
First recorded in 1980–85
Explanation
Your car is your automobile, your wheels, your vehicle. A car can also be another kind of moving compartment — such as a railroad car, a cable car, or a trolley car. The word car has been around much longer than the automobile. It comes from the Latin carrus, a kind of wagon the Romans discovered from the Gauls, a European people the Romans conquered. It shows up in Italian and Spanish (carro, meaning "a car or a cart," and it also survives in various forms in modern Irish, Gaelic, Welsh, Breton, German, and other languages. When you’re listening to your engine purr, you can thank the Gauls. And the Romans.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“This car, like most exotic cars, does not pay the bills,” Brauer said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
Elon Musk said Tesla’s wildest car ever would enter production in 2028, but key details are MIA.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026
"No personal data related to our rentals is shared with car manufacturers, our owners or other third parties without explicit legal grounds," he added, without specifying whether the onboard videos may have been transferred.
From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2026
Now nearly a third of all car sales are Chinese EVs.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
“I’ve been looking for you two everywhere. We have to go. And Nate, you need to move your car, pronto. Someone’s stuck in the snow and it’s in the way.”
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
Across these experiments, the PPARD-activated CAR T cells slowed or stopped tumor growth.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
The study, published in Cell, is titled "Expansion and CAR engineering of granulocyte-monocyte progenitors for cellular immunotherapy."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
Investment by suppliers plunged from more than $8 billion in the first quarter of 2025 to around $600 million in the two subsequent quarters before recovering somewhat, according to CAR data.
From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026
In 2025, during a clinical trial of CAR T-cell therapy, a technique currently used to treat some types of leukaemia and lymphoma, Maya developed a brain injury which Dellanie said left her "profoundly disabled".
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
The message buzzed in: what part of CAR COMING!
From "Shelter (Book One): A Mickey Bolitar Novel" by Harlan Coben
As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, Noah said, “And there’s my dad’s car. … And there he is walking in with Pamela.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
“I don’t have any assets. I don’t own a car. I don’t own a phone.”
From Slate ● Sep. 9, 2026
"It slows you down and you get to see places you just wouldn't see in a car. We've seen places we just never would have dreamed of stopping at before."
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
“I don’t wear expensive designer clothes and I don’t drive a massive car. I know all about what it means to work hard to earn a living.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
“And I rented a car. Everything else anyone could possibly need for a weekend away is in this bag.”
From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart
That was due to Tesla’s cost advantage when it came to making cars and his boasts about plans to reduce them further.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026
“This car, like most exotic cars, does not pay the bills,” Brauer said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
In its report three weeks after the exercise, DN said the recordings came from rental vehicles -- at least two of them Deepal brand cars, made by Chinese state-controlled automaker Changan.
From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2026
Western automakers aren’t yet en masse preparing their own flying cars a la Tesla.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026
On the opposite side of the highway, at least a half dozen police cars with flashing lights clustered on the shoulder.
From "Storm Runners" by Roland Smith
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