cocksure
"cocksure" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cocksure” is uncommon English (frequency #95,839 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #95,839
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Too confident; overconfident.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cocksure · cocksure · English
cocksure · rank #95,839 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #95,839
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH cochineal
Nearest frequency peer: cochineal (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “cocksure”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- coaling
coaling
4,166 corpus weight
- cobby
cobby
4,164 corpus weight
- cochineal
cochineal
4,163 corpus weight
- cocksure
cocksure
4,162 corpus weight
- cohere
cohere
4,160 corpus weight
- Colla
Colla
4,158 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “cocksure” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cocksure |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #95,839 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “cocksure” in English
Rare enough to double-check
cocksure is uncommon English at frequency #95,839 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Too confident; overconfident.".
Zero misspellings are on record for cocksure in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Probably from cock + sure, early 16th c. The correct English form is cocksure, spelled C-O-C-K-S-U-R-E.
Definition
- 1Too confident; overconfident.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cocksure appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I thought myself cocksure of his horse, which he readily promis'd me.
The persistence of the Past is one of those tragicomic blessings which each new age denies, coming cocksure on to the stage to mouth its claim to a perfect novelty.
Etymology
Probably from cock + sure, early 16th c.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cocksure", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).