cob
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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3 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "cob", 3-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "cob" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "cob" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
cob is aEnglishnoun. It means: A corncob. Pronounced /kɑb/. Often confused with CT and CR.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cob |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kɑb/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #27,404 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cob is 3 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kɑb/. Corpus data places it at rank #27,404 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 19 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for cob in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CT", "CR", "cs", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Of uncertain origin. The word has many disparate senses, which are likely of diverse origin. The specifics of these origins have long been debated, as has the question of which senses arise from which origins. At least the swan sense originated in Middle En… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is cob, spelled C-O-B, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A corncob.
- 2The seed-bearing head of a plant.
- 3Clipping of cobnut.
- 4A male swan.
- 5A gull, especially the black-backed gull (Larus marinus); also spelled cobb.
- 6A lump or piece of anything, usually of a somewhat large size, as of coal, stone, or excrement.
- 7A round, often crusty roll or loaf of bread.
- 8A building material consisting of clay, sand, straw, water, and earth, similar to adobe; also called cobb, rammed earth or pisé.
- 9A horse having a stout body and short legs.
- 10Any of the gold and silver coins that were minted in the Spanish Empire and valued in reales or escudos, such as the piece of eight—especially those which were crudely struck and irregularly shaped.
- 11One who is eminent, great, large, or rich.
- 12A spider (cf. cobweb).
- 13A small fish, the miller's thumb.
- 14A large fish, especially the kabeljou (variant spelling of kob).
- 15The head of a herring.
- 16A tower or small castle on top of a hill.
- 17A thresher.
- 18A cylinder with pins in it, encoding music to be played back mechanically by a barrel organ.
- 19A person of mixed black and white ancestry, especially a griffe; a mulatto.
Etymology
Of uncertain origin. The word has many disparate senses, which are likely of diverse origin. The specifics of these origins have long been debated, as has the question of which senses arise from which origins. At least the swan sense originated in Middle English cobbe (“male swan; gang leader; bully”). Some other senses likely originated as a variant of cop (“head, top, peak, summit”). In other senses, the word may be related to cub, itself of obscure origin but possibly from Old Norse kobbi (“seal”). However, many alternative etymologies have been proposed to account for some or all senses of cob; various sources have related it, for example, to English cot (“cottage”), Welsh cob (“top, tuft”), or German Kübel (“large container”). All these etymologies are disputed, and the exact origins of cob cannot be known with any certainty.
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #27,404 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: