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PlainSpell

cold

UK /kəʊld/adjective, noun, adverb

cold is spelled C-O-L-D: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 105 times per million words in written English, the 1,021st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, cold means “Having a low temperature” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in cold?

Letters4: C-O-L-D
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing105 times per million words; the 1,021st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
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 cold?

Cold appears 105 times per million words in written English, the 1,021st 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 cold?

  • UK /kəʊld/
  • UK [kʰɔʊɫd]
  • UK [kʰɒʊɫd]

Cold 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-uk-cold.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-cold.wav, En-us-cold.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with cold

Sounds like: coaled (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with cold?

9 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as cold from its last stressed vowel (/əʊld/, British pronunciation):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: clod.

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 cold

  • colder comparative
  • coldest superlative
  • colds plural
  • more cold comparative
  • most cold superlative

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

What does cold mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Having a low temperature.

    A cold wind whistled through the trees.

  2. 2

    Causing the air to be cold.

    The forecast is that it will be very cold today.

  3. 3

    Feeling the sensation of coldness, especially to the point of discomfort.

    She was so cold she was shivering.

  4. 4

    Unfriendly; emotionally distant or unfeeling.

    She shot me a cold glance before turning her back.

  5. 5

    Chilled, filled with an uncomfortable sense of fear, dread, or alarm.

  6. 6

    Dispassionate; not prejudiced or partisan; impartial.

    Let's look at this tomorrow with a cold head.

  7. 7

    Completely unprepared; without introduction.

    He was assigned cold calls for the first three months.

  8. 8

    Unconscious or deeply asleep; deprived of the metaphorical heat associated with life or consciousness.

    I knocked him out cold.

noun

  1. 1

    A condition of low temperature.

    Come in, out of the cold.

  2. 2

    A harsh place; a place of abandonment.

    The former politician was left out in the cold after his friends deserted him.

  3. 3

    A common, usually harmless, usually viral illness, usually with congestion of the nasal passages and sometimes fever.

    I caught a miserable cold and had to stay home for a week

  4. 4

    slangRheum; sleepy dust.

adverb

  1. 1

    At a low temperature.

    The steel was processed cold.

  2. 2

    Without preparation.

    The speaker went in cold and floundered for a topic.

  3. 3

    datedinformalslangIn a cold, frank, or realistically honest manner.

noun

as COLD
  1. 1

    Acronym of computer output to laser disc.

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

Cold in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfroid (having a low temperature), rhume (illness – see also flu, catarrh)
Germankalt, koid (having a low temperature), Erkältung, Verkühlung (illness – see also flu, catarrh), kaltherzig (unfriendly), Kälte (low temperature)
Portuguesefrio, gelado (having a low temperature), resfriado, gripe (illness – see also flu, catarrh), fazer frio (of the weather), estar com frio (of a person's sensation)
Spanishfrío (having a low temperature), rasca, biruji (low temperature), hacer frío, hacer yelo (of the weather), tener frío (of a person's sensation)

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 cold come from?

Inherited from Middle English cold, from Anglian Old English cald. The West Saxon form, ċeald (“cold”), survived as early Middle English cheald, cheld, or chald. Both descended from Proto-West Germanic *kald, from Proto-Germanic *kaldaz (“cold”), a participle form of *kalaną (“to be cold, to freeze”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to be cold, to freeze”).

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

What to look up after cold