cole
/kəʊl/noun
cole is spelled C-O-L-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,309th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Cole, the name). As a noun, cole means “Cabbage” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cole is coles.
How many letters and syllables are in cole?
| Letters | 4: C-O-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 15 times per million words; the 5,309th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is cole?
Cole appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,309th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Cole, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce cole?
- UK /kəʊl/
- UK /kɔʊl/
- /kɒl/
Cole 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).
Words people confuse with cole
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: coal, kohl (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: coal.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with cole?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as cole from its last stressed vowel (/əʊl/, British pronunciation):
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 cole
- coles plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cole mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Cabbage.
- 2
Brassica; a plant of the Brassica genus, especially those of Brassica oleracea (rape and coleseed).
- 3
ScotlandA stack or stook of hay.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Cole in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense brassica:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | choux |
| Portuguese | brassicácea, couve |
| Spanish | col |
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 cole come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).