A carrier frequency estimation method and apparatus is provided for improving frequency estimation performance in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication system. The frequency estimation method for a wireless communication system includes summing correlations of four pairs of reference symbols transmitted at different frequency-time resource blocks in a pattern, each pair including two closest reference symbols; calculating a statistical value (E) by accumulating the summed correlation in a frequency direction; and estimating a frequency offset using an angle extracted from the statistical value (E).