COBOL
/ˈkoʊbɒl/
"cobol" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“COBOL” is uncommon English (frequency #53,449 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #53,449
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A programming language developed in the late 1950s, especially for business applications.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | COBOL |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈkoʊbɒl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #53,449 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “COBOL” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
COBOL is uncommon English at frequency #53,449 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed /ˈkoʊbɒl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A programming language developed in the late 1950s, especially for business applications.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for COBOL, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Acronym of common business-oriented language, perhaps coined by American computer scientist and aerospace engineer Bob Bemer. The correct English form is COBOL, spelled C-O-B-O-L.
Definition
- 1A programming language developed in the late 1950s, especially for business applications.
Etymology
Acronym of common business-oriented language, perhaps coined by American computer scientist and aerospace engineer Bob Bemer.
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 “COBOL”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-B-O-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkoʊbɒl/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.