cockervscookerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“cocker” and “cooker” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#36,492
“cocker” frequency rank
#18,522
“cooker” frequency rank
55014
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cocker cooker
Definition One who breeds gamecocks or engages in the sport of cockfighting. A cookstove.

Where the eye mixes cocker and cooker

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
cocker
6 ch
cooker

Look-alike desk: cocker vs cooker

A purely visual mix-up. cocker (/ˈkɒkə/) and cooker (/ˈkʊkɚ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - c in “cocker” becomes o in “cooker”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55014, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cocker is recorded at frequency rank #36,492, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɒkə/. cooker is at rank #18,522, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkʊkɚ/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 55014, this pair ranks #136,782 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cocker vs cooker

Shared letters: cekor. Private to "cocker": -. Private to "cooker": -.

"cocker" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cooker" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cockerccocker · ccoker · coccker · cocekr · cockerr · cockker · cockre · cokcer
  • cookerccooker · cokoer · cooekr · cookerr · cookker · cookre · ocoker

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cocker" for "cooker" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkɒkə/ versus /ˈkʊkɚ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cocker" or "cooker"?
"cooker" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,522 in our English list, against #36,492 for "cocker". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cocker" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cooker" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #136,782 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cocker" and "cooker" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cocker vs cower". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #136,782 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list