cole
/kəʊl/
"cole" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cole” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,308 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,308
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Cabbage.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cole |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kəʊl/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #5,308 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cole” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cole is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kəʊl/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,308 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for cole, with forms such as "ccole", "cloe", and "coel". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cop", "con", "cow", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English cole, col, from Old English cawel, an early Germanic borrowing from Latin caulis (“cabbage”). Cognate with Dutch kool, German Kohl, Danish kål, Norwegian Bokmål kål, Norwegian Nynorsk kål, Swedish kål. Doublet of caulis, gobi, and kale. The correct English form is cole, spelled C-O-L-E.
Definition
- 1Cabbage.
- 2Brassica; a plant of the Brassica genus, especially those of Brassica oleracea (rape and coleseed).
Etymology
From Middle English cole, col, from Old English cawel, an early Germanic borrowing from Latin caulis (“cabbage”). Cognate with Dutch kool, German Kohl, Danish kål, Norwegian Bokmål kål, Norwegian Nynorsk kål, Swedish kål. Doublet of caulis, gobi, and kale.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccole,cloe,coel,colle,ocle
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cole - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "cole"?
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Using “cole”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kəʊl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cop” - see the side-by-side comparison. cole vs cop
- 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.