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coconut

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

7 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "coconut", 7-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 "coconut" 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 "coconut" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

coconut is aEnglishnoun. It means: A fruit of the coconut palm (not a true nut), Cocos nucifera, having a fibrous husk surrounding a large seed. Pronounced /ˈkəʊ.kə.nʌt/. It ranks #8,524 in English word frequency.

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Key facts for coconut
PropertyValue
Headwordcoconut
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈkəʊ.kə.nʌt/
Letters7
Frequency rank#8,524
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of coconut in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for coconut is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkəʊ.kə.nʌt/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,524 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for coconut, with forms such as "ccoconut", "ccoonut", and "cocconut". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.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 coco + nut. In reference to assimilated Hispanic or black people, derived from the fruit's exotic origins. The slur originates from the idea that one is "brown on the outside, white on the inside". In reference to Polynesians, from the ubiquity of coco… 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 coconut, spelled C-O-C-O-N-U-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A fruit of the coconut palm (not a true nut), Cocos nucifera, having a fibrous husk surrounding a large seed.
  2. 2
    A hard-shelled seed of this fruit, having white flesh and a fluid-filled central cavity.
  3. 3
    The edible white flesh of this fruit.
  4. 4
    The coconut palm.
  5. 5
    A member of any of various dark-skinned ethnic groups (e.g. Hispanic, South Asian, or black) who is considered to have overly assimilated to white culture:
  6. 6
    A member of any of various dark-skinned ethnic groups (e.g. Hispanic, South Asian, or black) who is considered to have overly assimilated to white culture:
  7. 7
    A member of any of various dark-skinned ethnic groups (e.g. Hispanic, South Asian, or black) who is considered to have overly assimilated to white culture:
  8. 8
    A member of any of various dark-skinned ethnic groups (e.g. Hispanic, South Asian, or black) who is considered to have overly assimilated to white culture:
  9. 9
    A Pacific islander.
  10. 10
    A female breast.
  11. 11
    The human head.

Etymology

From coco + nut. In reference to assimilated Hispanic or black people, derived from the fruit's exotic origins. The slur originates from the idea that one is "brown on the outside, white on the inside". In reference to Polynesians, from the ubiquity of coconut palms in the area.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ccoconut,ccoonut,cocconut,cocnout,coconnut,cocontu,coconutt,cocount,coocnut,occonut

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for coconut

Misspelling Variants of "coconut"

ccoconut8ccoonut7cocconut8cocnout7coconnut8cocontu7coconutt8cocount7
Misspelling Variants of "coconut"

Frequency rank: #8,524 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "coconut"?
"coconut" is spelled C-O-C-O-N-U-T. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈkəʊ.kə.nʌt/.
What does "coconut" mean?
As a noun, "coconut" means: A fruit of the coconut palm (not a true nut), Cocos nucifera, having a fibrous husk surrounding a large seed.
What are common misspellings of "coconut"?
Common misspellings include "ccoconut", "ccoonut", "cocconut", "cocnout", "coconnut". The correct spelling is "coconut".
How do you pronounce "coconut"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "coconut" is /ˈkəʊ.kə.nʌt/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "coconut"?
From coco + nut. In reference to assimilated Hispanic or black people, derived from the fruit's exotic origins. The slur originates from the idea that one is "brown on the outside, white on the inside". In reference to Polynesians, from the ubiqui... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.