Cold War
/ˌkəʊld ˈwɔː/
"cold-war" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Cold War” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The period of hostility short of open war between the Soviet Bloc and the Western powers, especially the United States, between 1945 and 1991.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cold-war · Cold War · English
Cold War · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 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 War |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˌkəʊld ˈwɔː/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Cold War” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Cold War is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aproper noun, transcribed /ˌkəʊld ˈwɔː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The period of hostility short of open war between the Soviet Bloc and the Western powers, especially the United States, between 1945 and 1991.".
No misspelling variants are generated for Cold War in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Coined by American journalist Herbert Bayard Swope in 1947, in a speech he wrote for Bernard Baruch (1870–1965), an American financier and adviser to President Woodrow Wilson. The correct English form is Cold War, spelled C-O-L-D- -W-A-R.
Definition
- 1The period of hostility short of open war between the Soviet Bloc and the Western powers, especially the United States, between 1945 and 1991.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Cold War appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Well Russia at the present time is at a crossroads. It is often said that the Cold War is over and that the West has won it- that's only half true. Because what has happened is that the communists have been defeated, but the ideas of freedom now are on trial. If they don't work, there will be a reversion to, not communism which has failed, but what I call…
The situation in Berlin had its uses for Moscow, of course, as for others–the city had become the primary listening post and spy center of the Cold War; some 70 different agencies were operating there by 1961, and it was in Berlin that Soviet espionage scored some of their greatest successes.
Etymology
Coined by American journalist Herbert Bayard Swope in 1947, in a speech he wrote for Bernard Baruch (1870–1965), an American financier and adviser to President Woodrow Wilson.
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.