book
/bʊk/noun, verb
book is spelled B-O-O-K. The wrong spelling people search most is boook: about 150 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 357 of all searches for the word. Book is a noun meaning “A collection of sheets of paper bound together to hinge at one edge, containing printed or written material…”. The plural of book is books.
How many letters and syllables are in book?
| Letters | 4: B-O-O-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 269 times per million words; the 356th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, boook, about 150 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell book?
Book is spelled B-O-O-K. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 355 of the searches for book in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is book?
Book appears 269 times per million words in written English, the 356th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce book?
- US /bʊk/
- British /bɵk/
- /buːk/
Book has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-book.ogg, En-uk-book.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with book?
7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as book from its last stressed vowel (/ʊk/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: boko, kobo.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of book
- books plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- booking participle, present
- booked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does book mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A collection of sheets of paper bound together to hinge at one edge, containing printed or written material, pictures, etc.
She opened the book to page 37 and began to read aloud.
- 2
A long work fit for publication, typically prose, such as a novel or textbook, and typically published as such a bound collection of sheets, but now sometimes electronically as an e-book.
I have three copies of his first book.
- 3
A major division of a long work.
Genesis is the first book of the Bible.
- 4
A record of betting (from the use of a notebook to record what each person has bet).
I'm running a book on who is going to win the race.
- 5
informalA bookmaker (a person who takes bets on sporting events and similar); bookie; turf accountant.
- 6
A convenient collection, in a form resembling a book, of small paper items for individual use.
a book of stamps
- 7
The script of a musical or opera.
- 8
Records of the accounts of a business.
verb
- 1
To reserve (something) for future use.
I want to book a hotel room for tomorrow night.
- 2
To write down, to register or record in a book or as in a book.
They booked that message from the hill.
- 3
To add a name to the list of people who are participating in something.
I booked a flight to New York.
- 4
To record the name and other details of a suspected offender and the offence for later judicial action.
The police booked him for driving too fast.
- 5
To issue a caution to, usually a yellow card, or a red card if a yellow card has already been issued.
- 6
slangTo travel very fast.
He was really booking until he passed the speed trap.
- 7
To record bets as bookmaker.
- 8
To receive the highest grade in a class.
The top three students had a bet on which one was going to book their intellectual property class.
- 9
UKsimple past of bake
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate book?
Wiktionary records 3 abbreviations of book: b., bk, bk..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Book in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | livre, bouquin , réserver |
| German | Buch, Buech , buchen , Wettliste , Album , Bücher |
| Portuguese | livro , reservar , álbum , parte , livreto , anotar |
| Spanish | libro, libraco, libracho, librejo , álbum , libreto |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does book come from?
From Middle English bok, book, from Old English bōc, from Proto-West Germanic *bōk, from Proto-Germanic *bōks. Bookmaker sense by clipping.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).