cockscomb
"cockscomb" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cockscomb” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A fleshy red crest of a rooster
Corpus desk
Index EN-cockscomb · cockscomb · English
cockscomb · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cockscomb |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cockscomb” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
cockscomb is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for cockscomb in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English cokkes comb; equivalent to cock + -s- + comb. The correct English form is cockscomb, spelled C-O-C-K-S-C-O-M-B.
Definition
- 1A fleshy red crest of a rooster
- 2A red cap once worn by court jesters
- 3A yellow rattle, Rhinanthus minor (flowering plant native to Eurasia)
- 4An annual garden plant (Celosia argentea var. cristata, syn. Celosia cristata), having showy red clusters of flowers
- 5A conceited dandy
- 6A serrated cleat once fitted to the yards of a square-rigged ship and used when the sail was being reefed
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how cockscomb appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
She saw a square picture framed in the window, two whitewashed cottages each with a little winding path, a bed of red and yellow cockscomb, a sloping field, a row of gum-trees, a child in a blue sunbonnet carrying a basket.
Etymology
From Middle English cokkes comb; equivalent to cock + -s- + comb.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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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.