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PlainSpell

cog

/kɔɡ/noun, verb

cog is spelled C-O-G: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.0 times per million words in written English, the 28,556th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, cog means “A tooth on a gear” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cog is cogs.

How many letters and syllables are in cog?

Letters3: C-O-G
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.0 times per million words; the 28,556th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 cog?

Cog appears 1.0 times per million words in written English, the 28,556th 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 cog?

  • UK /kɒɡ/
  • US /kɔɡ/
  • /kɑɡ/

Cog has one syllable (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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-cog.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with cog?

9 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as cog from its last stressed vowel (/ɔɡ/):

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 cog

  • cogs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • cogging participle, present
  • cogged participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does cog mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A tooth on a gear.

  2. 2

    A gear; especially, a cogwheel.

  3. 3

    An unimportant individual in a greater system.

    just a cog in the machine

  4. 4

    A projection or tenon at the end of a beam designed to fit into a matching opening of another piece of wood to form a joint.

  5. 5

    One of the rough pillars of stone or coal left to support the roof of a mine.

  6. 6

    A partially clinker-built, flat-bottomed, square-rigged mediaeval ship of burden or war, with a round, bulky hull and a single mast, typically 15 to 25 meters in length, in use from ca. 1150 to 1500.

  7. 7

    The hypothetical precursor ship type of the above said to be in use during the early Middle Ages, variously alleged to be Frisian or Scandinavian.

  8. 8

    A small fishing boat.

  9. 9

    A trick or deception; a falsehood.

  10. 10

    Alternative form of cogue (“wooden vessel for milk”).

  11. 11

    Initialism of center of gravity

verb

  1. 1

    To furnish with a cog or cogs.

  2. 2

    Of an electric motor or generator, to snap preferentially to certain positions when not energized.

  3. 3

    To load (a die) so that it can be used to cheat.

  4. 4

    To cheat; to play or gamble fraudulently.

  5. 5

    To seduce, or draw away, by adulation, artifice, or falsehood; to wheedle; to cozen; to cheat.

  6. 6

    To plagiarize.

  7. 7

    To obtrude or thrust in, by falsehood or deception; to palm off.

    to cog in a word

noun

as COG
  1. 1

    Initialism of center of gravity.

  2. 2

    Initialism of cluster of galaxies

  3. 3

    Abbreviation of course over ground.

noun

as CoG
  1. 1

    Initialism of center of gravity.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Cog in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdent (tooth on a gear), pion, rouage (unimportant individual)
GermanZahn (tooth on a gear), Rädchen (unimportant individual), Zapfen (carpentry: a projection or tenon), Kogge (type of ship)
Portuguesedente (tooth on a gear)
Spanishleva, álabe, levador (tooth on a gear), coca (type of ship)

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 cog come from?

Inherited from Middle English cogge, from Old Norse *kogge, *koggr (see Old Swedish kogge, kogger), from Proto-Germanic *kuggō (“cog, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *gugā (“hump, ball”), from *gēw- (“to bend, arch”). Compare Lithuanian gugà (“pommel, hump, hill”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after cog