# coke

> English word · Noun · IPA /kəʊk/ · frequency rank #6,224

## Definitions
1. Solid residue from roasting coal in a coke oven; used principally as a fuel and in the production of steel and formerly as a domestic fuel.

## Etymology
The origin is not certain. The OED says it is first attested in 1669. The MED has an earlier attestation in the related sense of "charcoal" in 1430: Middle English coke. This may be the same word as colk (“core”) (perhaps from the notion that coke is the core of the material left after it burning), from Old English *colc (“hole, well”), from Proto-West Germanic *kolk, from Proto-Germanic *kulukaz (“a hollow, depression”), from Proto-Indo-European *g(ʷ)el- (“to swallow, devour; gullet”). If so, cognate with Saterland Frisian Kolk (“maelstrom, depression, whirlpool”), West Frisian kolk (“maelstrom, whirlpool”), Dutch kolk (“maelstrom, vortex, whirlpool”), German Kolk (“pothole”).

## Easily confused with
- **cop** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-cop)
- **con** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-con)
- **cow** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-cow)
- **cos** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-cos)
- **col** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-col)
- **cox** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-cox)
- **cue** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-cue)
- **cor** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-cor)
- **coo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-coo)
- **cot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-cot)
- **coz** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-coz)
- **coy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-coy)
- **CTE** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-cte)
- **Cov** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-cov)
- **CSE** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-cse)
- **come** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-come)
- **cost** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-cost)
- **cool** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-cool)
- **cold** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-cold)
- **copy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coke-vs-copy)

## Common misspellings (5)
`ccoke`, `ckoe`, `coek`, `cokke`, `ocke`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/coke