coast

/kəʊst/

//kəʊst// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"coast" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“coast” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,420. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,420
frequency rank, English
5,599
“C” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The edge of the land where it meets an ocean, sea, gulf, bay, or large lake.

Corpus desk

Index EN-coast · coast · English

coast · rank #1,420 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,420
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,599
  • PHOTO-FINISH cell

Nearest frequency peer: cell (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “coast”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “coast” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

coast vs cos
60% similar
coast vs cot
60% similar
coast vs CST
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for coast
PropertyValue
Headwordcoast
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/kəʊst/
Letters5
Frequency rank#1,420
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “coast”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).coastlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “cell” (#1,419), “comments” (#1,421), “catch” (#1,418). Among 5,599 “C” headwords, “coast” is #1,420. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around coast (IPA /kəʊst/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,420 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for coast, with forms such as "caost", "ccoast", and "coasst". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cos", "cot", "CST", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English coste (“rib; side of the body, flank; side of a building; face of a solid figure; coast, shore; bay, gulf; sea; concavity, hollow; boundary, limit; land; country; district, province, region; locality, place; division of the heavens; comp… The correct English form is coast, spelled C-O-A-S-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    The edge of the land where it meets an ocean, sea, gulf, bay, or large lake.
  2. 2
    The side or edge of something.
  3. 3
    A region of land; a district or country.
  4. 4
    A region of the air or heavens.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how coast appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The rocky coast of Maine has few beaches.
  2. And the Coaſt towards which the lines KL and VX are drawn, may be call’d the Coaſt of unuſual Refraction.

Etymology

From Middle English coste (“rib; side of the body, flank; side of a building; face of a solid figure; coast, shore; bay, gulf; sea; concavity, hollow; boundary, limit; land; country; district, province, region; locality, place; division of the heavens; compass direction; direction; location with reference to direction, side”) [and other forms], from Old French coste (“rib; side of an object; coast”) (modern French côte (“rib; coast; hill, slope”)), from Latin costa (“rib; side, wall”). Doublet of costa. Compare typologically cape < Latin caput, ness (akin to nose), Bulgarian нос (nos, “nose; …; cape, promontory, foreland, gore”), Macedonian ’рт (’rt), Serbo-Croatian рт (“cape, promontory, headland”) < Proto-Slavic *rъtъ (whence Russian рот (rot)).

This word in other languages

costa(Español)côte(Français)Küste(Deutsch)costa(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • caost
  • ccoast
  • coasst
  • coastt
  • cosat
  • ocast

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of coast - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

caost2ccoast1coasst1coastt1cosat2ocast2
Edit distance from "coast"

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

How do you spell "coast"?
"coast" is spelled C-O-A-S-T. The IPA pronunciation is /kəʊst/.
What does "coast" mean?
As a noun, "coast" means: The edge of the land where it meets an ocean, sea, gulf, bay, or large lake.
What words are commonly confused with "coast"?
"coast" is commonly confused with "cos", "cot", "CST". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "coast"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "coast" is /kəʊst/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "coast"?
From Middle English coste (“rib; side of the body, flank; side of a building; face of a solid figure; coast, shore; bay, gulf; sea; concavity, hollow; boundary, limit; land; country; district, province, region; locality, place; division of the hea... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "coast", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

catch#1,418avoid#1,416rates#1,406Peter#1,402

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

drug6 variantssick6 variantsshop6 variantstrial6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list