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popular

/ˈpɑ.pjə.lɚ/
adjectivenoun

POPULAR meaning: generally accepted or common among the public; POPULAR scores 11 points in Scrabble and has no anagrams.

NWL Collins ENABLE

Adjective 4 meanings

  1. Common among the general public; generally accepted.

  2. Concerning the people; public.

  3. Pertaining to or deriving from the people or general public.

  4. Aimed at ordinary people, as opposed to specialists etc.; intended for general consumption.

Noun 3 meanings

  1. A person who is popular, especially at a school.

  2. An inexpensive newspaper with wide circulation.

  3. A member of the Populares

Definitions: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA) via Kaikki/Wiktextract

Where it comes from

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English populer, borrowed from Old French populaire, or borrowed from Latin populāris.

Similar and opposite words

Opposite
anonymousunpopular

Popular is an everyday adjective for what is common among the general public or generally accepted; its noun senses include a person who is popular, an inexpensive newspaper with wide circulation, or a member of the Populares. Frequency figures place it at rank 875, with 18,896 recorded occurrences. Even so, the game profile is spare: POPULAR has no anagrams and only two one-letter neighbours, PAPULAR and COPULAR.

POPULAR at a glance

  • The seven-letter spelling scores 11 points in Scrabble before any board multipliers.
  • Each P is worth 3 points; O, U, L, A, and R add 1 point apiece.
  • POPULAR has zero anagrams, despite its repeated P and seven-letter rack.
  • Its only one-letter neighbours are PAPULAR and COPULAR.
  • Twelve rhymes include SIMILAR, REGULAR, DOLLAR, SOLAR, SCHOLAR, and CIRCULAR.

POPULAR meaning and Scrabble value

POPULAR meaning depends on its part of speech. As an adjective, it describes what is common among the general public or generally accepted. A natural use is, “The proposal became popular after the vote,” where the word signals broad acceptance rather than a specific number of supporters.

On the board, the base score is 11: the two P tiles contribute 6 points together, while O, U, L, A, and R make up the other 5. That makes the repeated consonant the scoring engine, not an unusual letter. Both P tiles are worth more than every other individual tile in the word.

Which words rhyme with or differ from POPULAR?

POPULAR rhymes with 12 words sharing the “lar” sound, including REGULAR and SCHOLAR. Those are sound matches, not anagrams: no rearrangement of POPULAR's exact tiles produces another word. If a rack clue asks for an anagram, this seven-letter set reaches a dead end.

Changing one tile produces PAPULAR or COPULAR, the only two neighbours for this word. Check your game's word list before playing either. For a vocabulary clue, POPULAR meaning is the familiar public-acceptance sense; for a rack puzzle, remember that no anagram exists.

Rhymes with popular

All rhymes

One letter away

Change one letter, keep the rest
  • PAPULAR11
  • COPULAR11

Questions people ask

How many points is POPULAR worth in Scrabble?
POPULAR is worth 11 points before board bonuses. Each P contributes 3 points, and O, U, L, A, and R contribute 1 point apiece. A premium square changes the total, so count the tile values first and then apply the board bonus.
Does POPULAR have any anagrams?
No. POPULAR has zero anagrams using the same seven tiles, even though it contains a repeated P. That makes it a poor rack for an anagram clue; the word's rhymes, such as REGULAR and SCHOLAR, use different letters.
What words are one letter away from POPULAR?
PAPULAR and COPULAR are the two one-letter neighbours for POPULAR. Each changes one tile while keeping the word's length. Check your game's word list before playing either form, since a close spelling is not by itself a guarantee of acceptance.

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