cold as a mackerel
"cold-as-a-mackerel" is a 15-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cold as a mackerel” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 18
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Very cold (in temperature, emotionally, etc.).
Corpus desk
Index EN-cold-as-a-mackerel · cold as a mackerel · English
cold as a mackerel · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 18 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cold as a mackerel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 18 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “cold as a mackerel” in English
Rare enough to double-check
cold as a mackerel is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for cold as a mackerel in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is cold as a mackerel, spelled C-O-L-D- -A-S- -A- -M-A-C-K-E-R-E-L.
Definition
- 1Very cold (in temperature, emotionally, etc.).
- 2Completely unconscious.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cold as a mackerel appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
1920, Fire Service (Official organ of the Fire Marshals’ Association of North America, and Eastern Association of Superintendents of Fire and Police Telegraph), 6 March, 1920, p. 7, “I tell you, Governor, that in those days they weren’t ashamed to have a little good liquor around to warm the insides of a man weary and as cold as a mackerel from an all nig…
At that raw spring hour, mid-February or early March, the sky would be as beautifully cold as a mackerel, bluish-white at its base, everywhere else a dark bruise-blue except where gas lamps in the streets let in a pale green-whitish-yellow,
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.