cobber
/ˈkɒbɚ/noun
cobber is spelled C-O-B-B-E-R: 6 letters. It appears about once in every 34 million words in written English, the 178,202nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, cobber means “A pal, buddy, mate, friend; often used in direct address by one male to another” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cobber is cobbers.
How many letters and syllables are in cobber?
| Letters | 6: C-O-B-B-E-R |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 34 million words; the 178,202nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is cobber?
Cobber appears about once in every 34 million words in written English, the 178,202nd 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 cobber?
- /ˈkɒbɚ/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: EN-AU_ck1_cobber.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-cobber.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of cobber
- cobbers plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cobber mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
AustraliadatedslangA pal, buddy, mate, friend; often used in direct address by one male to another.
What's up, cobber?
- 2
AustraliaA sweet consisting of a small block of hard caramel covered in chocolate.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does cobber come from?
Uncertain. Perhaps from Yiddish חבֿר (khaver, “friend, comrade”), from Hebrew חבר (ḥāḇēr, “friend”), possibly via Dutch gabber; alternately, perhaps from the British dialectal term cob (“take a liking to”), or a conflation of both. The suggestion that it is a self-referential collective term for convicts and immigrants who departed for Australian shores from the Irish port of Cobh seems chronologically unlikely.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).