cold fish
"cold-fish" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cold fish” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A heartless individual; a person lacking empathy and emotion.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cold fish |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cold fish” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cold fish is 9 letters long, classified as a noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for cold fish, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Coined by William Shakespeare in 1611, see quotations. The correct English form is cold fish, spelled C-O-L-D- -F-I-S-H.
Definition
- 1A heartless individual; a person lacking empathy and emotion.
- 2A sexual partner who, during sex, lacks vigor or emotional reciprocity.
Etymology
Coined by William Shakespeare in 1611, see quotations.
This word in other languages
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "cold fish"?
What does "cold fish" mean?
What is the origin of the word "cold fish"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “cold fish”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-L-D- -F-I-S-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.