Co-op or coop?
co-op is a noun meaning “A unit of a housing cooperative; a purchased apartment where the apartment…”; coop is a noun meaning “A basket, pen or enclosure for birds or small animals”. co-op is written with a hyphen and coop as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between co-op and coop?
| co-op | coop | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A unit of a housing cooperative; a purchased apartment where the apartment owners collectively are responsible for maintenance of common areas and upkeep Any cooperative, including housing, retail, utility, agricultural, banking or worker cooperatives Synonym of cooperate | A basket, pen or enclosure for birds or small animals A wickerwork basket (kipe) or other enclosure for catching fish To keep in a coop |
| Example | co-op advertisement | 'Tis the cruel gripe, / That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, / The hope of better things, the chance to win, / The wiſh to ſhine, the… |
| Forms | co-ops | coops |
| Pronunciation | /ˈkoʊˌɒp/ | /kuːp/ /kup/ /kʉːp/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 2.6 times per million words |
Sources: co-op and coop in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of co-op and coop
co-op
- 1
A unit of a housing cooperative; a purchased apartment where the apartment owners collectively are responsible for maintenance of common areas and upkeep
- 2
Synonym of cooperate
- 3
UKinformalAny of very many shops belonging to the Co-operative Group and its predecessors
- 4
Any cooperative, including housing, retail, utility, agricultural, banking or worker cooperatives
co-op advertisement
- 5
To play a game in a cooperative style
Oh, you have this game too? We should co-op some time
- 6
Any shop owned by a cooperative
- 7
A cooperative game, as opposed to a competitive game or deathmatch
coop
- 1
A basket, pen or enclosure for birds or small animals
- 2
To keep in a coop
- 3
ScotlandA cart with sides and ends made from boards, enabling it to carry manure, etc
- 4
ScotlandA small heap
- 5
Alternative form of co-op
- 6
Abbreviation of cooperative
- 7
Dated spelling of co-op
- 8
Initialism of cross-origin opener policy
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, co-op or coop?
co-op is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; coop 2.6 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search co-op vs coop?
“co-op vs coop” is searched about 70 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“coop vs co-op”, “co-op or coop”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.