Co-operate or cooperate?
co-operate is a verb meaning “Alternative spelling of cooperate”; cooperate is a verb meaning “To work or act together, especially for a common purpose or benefit”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. co-operate is written with a hyphen and cooperate as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between co-operate and cooperate?
| co-operate | cooperate | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb | verb |
| Meaning | UKAlternative spelling of cooperate | To work or act together, especially for a common purpose or benefit To allow for mutual unobstructed action Dated spelling of cooperate |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | co-operates, co-operating, co-operated | cooperates, cooperating, cooperated coöperates, coöperating, coöperated |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /kəʊˈɒp.ə.ɹeɪt/ /kuˈɒp.ə.ɹeɪt/ /kəˈwɔpəɹɛjt/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 6.2 times per million words |
Sources: co-operate and cooperate 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-operate and cooperate
co-operate
- 1
UKAlternative spelling of cooperate
cooperate
- 1
To work or act together, especially for a common purpose or benefit
- 2
Dated spelling of cooperate
- 3
To allow for mutual unobstructed action
- 4
To function in harmony, side by side
- 5
To engage in economic cooperation
- 6
To obtain the cooperation of (a potential witness); to turn (someone) into a cooperating witness
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-operate or cooperate?
co-operate is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; cooperate 6.2 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).