coll
/kɑl/
"coll" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“coll” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #28,871) as a verb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #28,871
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 3
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To hug or embrace.
Corpus desk
Index EN-coll · coll · English
coll · rank #28,871 · 3 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #28,871
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 3 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH clippings
Nearest frequency peer: clippings (-1 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “coll”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- Chichester
Chichester
71,133 corpus weight
- clippings
clippings
71,131 corpus weight
- coll
coll
71,130 corpus weight
- colorectal
colorectal
71,129 corpus weight
- combing
combing
71,128 corpus weight
- commendation
commendation
71,127 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “coll” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
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 | coll |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /kɑl/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #28,871 |
| Misspellings tracked | 3 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “coll”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for coll is neighbouring look-alikes ("cop", "con", …), not just typos; it is averb pronounced /kɑl/. Frequency #28,871 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Gloss: "To hug or embrace.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for coll, with forms such as "ccoll", "clol", and "ocll". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cop", "con", "cow", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English collen, from Old French coler, acoler (“accoll, throw arms round neck of”); ultimately from Latin ad + collum (“neck”). The correct English form is coll, spelled C-O-L-L.
Definition
- 1To hug or embrace.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how coll appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
So hauing ſayd, her twixt her armes twaine / Shee ſtreightly ſtraynd, and colled tenderly
"As how, my lambkin," blushing, she replide, / "Because I in this dancing schoole abide? / If that it be, that breede's this discontent, / We will remoue the camp incontinent: / For shelter onelie, sweete heart, came I hither, / And to auoide the troblous stormie weather; / But now the coaste is cleare, we will be gonne, / Since, but thy self, true louer…
Etymology
From Middle English collen, from Old French coler, acoler (“accoll, throw arms round neck of”); ultimately from Latin ad + collum (“neck”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ccoll
- clol
- ocll
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of coll - 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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "coll", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).