cola
/ˈkoʊlə/noun
cola is spelled C-O-L-A: 4 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 5.5 times per million words in written English, the 10,519th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, cola means “The kola plant, genus Cola, famous for its nut, or one of these nuts” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cola is colas.
How many letters and syllables are in cola?
| Letters | 4: C-O-L-A |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 5.5 times per million words; the 10,519th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people 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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is cola?
Cola appears 5.5 times per million words in written English, the 10,519th 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 cola?
- UK /ˈkəʊ.lə/
- US /ˈkoʊlə/
Cola 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Persent101-cola.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with cola
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: kola.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with cola?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as cola from its last stressed vowel (/oʊlə/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: coal, alco.
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 cola
- colas plural
- kola
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cola mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The kola plant, genus Cola, famous for its nut, or one of these nuts.
- 2
A beverage or a drink made with kola nut flavoring, caramel and carbonated water.
- 3
A cluster of buds on a cannabis plant.
- 4
datedplural of colon
noun
- 1
Acronym of cost of living adjustment.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Cola in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense drink:
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 cola come from?
From a Niger-Congo language, compare Temne kola, Mandinka kola. The beverage "Coca-Cola" was what made the term widely known, and popularized the spelling with c instead of k.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).