coffin
/ˈkɔfɪn/noun, verb
coffin is spelled C-O-F-F-I-N: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 6.3 times per million words in written English, the 9,594th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, coffin means “A closed box in which the body of a dead person is placed for burial” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of coffin is coffins.
How many letters and syllables are in coffin?
| Letters | 6: C-O-F-F-I-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 6.3 times per million words; the 9,594th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is coffin?
Coffin appears 6.3 times per million words in written English, the 9,594th 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 coffin?
- UK /ˈkɒfɪn/
- US /ˈkɔfɪn/
- /ˈkɑfɪn/
Coffin has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-coffin.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with coffin
Also written: goffin.
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with coffin?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as coffin from its last stressed vowel (/ɔfɪn/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of coffin
- coffins plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- coffining participle, present
- coffined participle, past
- coffan
- coffen
- goffin
- goffan
- goffen
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does coffin mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A closed box in which the body of a dead person is placed for burial.
20 May 2018, Hadley Freeman in The Guardian, Is Meghan Markle the American the royals have needed all along? I’d always found the royals a cold proposition, Diana excepted, but the sight of that little boy, his head bent, not daring to look
- 2
The eighth Lenormand card.
- 3
archaicA casing or crust, or a mold, of pastry, as for a pie.
- 4
obsoleteA conical paper bag, used by grocers.
- 5
The hollow crust or hoof of a horse's foot, below the coronet, in which is the coffin bone.
- 6
A storage container for nuclear waste.
- 7
A combination fence obstacle where the horse jumps a set of rails, strides downhill to a ditch, and then goes back uphill to another jump.
- 8
obsoleteAn exploratory trench used when first digging a mine.
- 9
A deep ditch.
verb
- 1
To place in a coffin.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Coffin in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | cercueil |
| German | Sarg , einsargen |
| Portuguese | caixão, ataúde , encaixotar |
| Spanish | ataúd, féretro, cajón, urna, caja mortuoria |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does coffin come from?
From Middle English coffyn, from Old Northern French cofin (“sarcophagus", earlier "basket, coffer”), from Latin cophinus (“basket”), a loanword from Ancient Greek κόφινος (kóphinos, “a basket”). Doublet of coffer. Displaced native Old English þrūh.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).