railcar
noun
Simple meaning
A self-propelled railway vehicle for passengers, similar to a bus.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
raylkahrSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹeɪlkɑɹ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
rail transport
A self-propelled railway vehicle for passengers, similar to a bus.
rail transport
A powered single railway vehicle designed for passenger transport, with a driver's cab in both ends; Not to be confused with motor coach/motorcar, which is a powered railway vehicle capable to haul a train.
Only in Canada and US
Any unpowered railway vehicle
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (rail transport) A self-propelled railway vehicle for passengers, similar to a bus.
Used this way, railcar is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- railway car , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- locomotivenoun
- haulingnoun
- carriagenoun
- passengernoun
- commuternoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: self-propelled railway vehicle for passengers
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.