Word.ws English Dictionary

rail car

rail car is the alternative spelling of railcar.

Meaning of railcar

Noun

railcar (plural railcars)

  1. A self-propelled railway vehicle for passengers, similar to a bus.
    • The semi-streamlined contour of the earlier G.W.R. railcars has been given up in favour of a more utilitarian blunt-nose end, and effective floor space gained thereby.1941 October, “Notes and News: Great Western Parcels Railcar”, in Railway Magazine, page 474
    Synonyms:
    railbus
  2. 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.
  3. (Canada, US) Any unpowered railway vehicle.
    Synonyms:
    railroad car

Forms of rail car

pluralrail cars

Questions about rail car

What is rail car the alternative spelling of?
Rail car is the alternative spelling of railcar.

Words near rail car in the dictionary

  1. rail anchor
  2. rail anchors
  3. rail and stile
  4. rail brake
  5. rail brakes
  6. rail car
  7. rail cars
  8. rail drink
  9. rail drinks
  10. rail fare
  11. rail fares

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rail car (page history and authors); railcar (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “rail car.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rail_car. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.