cackle
/ˈkækəl/
"cackle" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cackle” is an uncommon English word, ranked #58,577 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #58,577
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The cry of a hen or goose, especially when laying an egg.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cackle |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkækəl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #58,577 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cackle” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cackle is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkækəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #58,577 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for cackle, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English caclen, cakelen, perhaps from Old English *caclian, *cacolian, from Proto-West Germanic *kakulōn, *kakilōn (“to cackle, gaggle, yelp, snarl”), perhaps of imitative origin. By surface analysis, cack + -le. Compare Dutch kakelen (“to cackl… The correct English form is cackle, spelled C-A-C-K-L-E.
Definition
- 1The cry of a hen or goose, especially when laying an egg.
- 2A laugh resembling the cry of a hen or goose.
- 3Futile or excessively noisy talk.
- 4A group of hyenas.
Etymology
From Middle English caclen, cakelen, perhaps from Old English *caclian, *cacolian, from Proto-West Germanic *kakulōn, *kakilōn (“to cackle, gaggle, yelp, snarl”), perhaps of imitative origin. By surface analysis, cack + -le. Compare Dutch kakelen (“to cackle”), German Low German kakeln (“to cackle”), German kakeln (“to blather”), Danish kagle (“to cackle”), Swedish kackla (“to cackle”). Compare also Old English cahhetan, ċeahhettan (“to laugh loudly; cackle”), German gackern (“to cackle”).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “cackle”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-C-K-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkækəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.