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PlainSpell

coil

/kɔɪl/noun, verb

coil is spelled C-O-I-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 5.4 times per million words in written English, the 10,680th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, coil means “Something wound in the form of a helix or spiral” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of coil is coils.

How many letters and syllables are in coil?

Letters4: C-O-I-L
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing5.4 times per million words; the 10,680th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

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 coil?

Coil appears 5.4 times per million words in written English, the 10,680th 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 coil?

  • US /kɔɪl/
  • British /koj(ə)l/
  • Australia /koɪ(.ə)l/

Coil 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: En-us-coil.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with coil?

5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as coil from its last stressed vowel (/ɔɪl/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: coli, loci.

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 coil

  • coils plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • coiling participle, present
  • coiled participle, past

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

What does coil mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Something wound in the form of a helix or spiral.

    the sinuous coils of a snake

  2. 2

    colloquialAny intrauterine device for contraception (originally coil-shaped).

  3. 3

    A coil of electrically conductive wire through which electricity can flow.

  4. 4

    A cylinder of clay.

  5. 5

    Entanglement; perplexity.

  6. 6

    A noise, tumult, bustle, or turmoil.

    a. 1738, Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux, and John Ozell (translators), François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel And when he saw that all the dogs were flocking about her, yarring at the retardment of their access to her, and ever

  7. 7

    informalslangA wad of cash.

verb

  1. 1

    To wind or reel e.g. a wire or rope into regular rings, often around a centerpiece.

    A simple transformer can be made by coiling two pieces of insulated copper wire around an iron heart.

  2. 2

    To wind into loops (roughly) around a common center.

    The sailor coiled the free end of the hawser on the pier.

  3. 3

    To wind cylindrically or spirally.

    to coil a rope when not in use

  4. 4

    To build a pot (etc) with clay coils.

  5. 5

    obsoleterareTo encircle and hold with, or as if with, coils.

    a. 1757, Thomas Edwards, sonnet to Mr. Nathanael Mason Pleasure coil thee in her dangerous snare

noun

as COIL
  1. 1

    Abbreviation of chemical oxygen-iodine laser.

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

Coil in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchspire (something wound), bobine (coil of electrically conductive wire through…), enrouler, embobiner (wind into regular rings)
GermanSpirale, Wickel, Rolle, Windung (something wound), Spule (coil of electrically conductive wire through…)
Portugueseespiral (something wound), bobina (coil of electrically conductive wire through…), enrolar (wind into regular rings)
Spanishespiral, hélice (something wound), bobina, bobinado, serpentino, arrollamiento (coil of electrically conductive wire through…)

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 coil come from?

From Middle English coilen, from Old French coillir, cuillir (“to gather, pluck, pick, cull”) (modern French cueillir), from Latin colligō (“to gather together”), past participle collectus, from com- (“together”) + legō (“to gather”); compare legend. Doublet of cull.

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

What to look up after coil