cook
/kʊk/noun, verb
cook is spelled C-O-O-K: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 45 times per million words in written English, the 2,253rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Cook, the name). As a noun, cook means “A person who prepares food” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cook is cooks.
How many letters and syllables are in cook?
| Letters | 4: C-O-O-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 45 times per million words; the 2,253rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is cook?
Cook appears 45 times per million words in written English, the 2,253rd most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Cook, 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 cook?
- /kʊk/
- /kuːk/
- /kʉk/
Cook 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). Recordings: En-us-cook.ogg, En-uk-to_cook.ogg, En-au-cook.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of cook
- cooks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- cooking participle, present
- cooked past, participle, singular, he/she/it, plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cook mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A person who prepares food.
I'm a terrible cook, so I eat a lot of frozen dinners.
- 2
The head cook of a manor house.
- 3
The degree or quality of cookedness of food.
- 4
The member of a hot-rivetting team who heats the rivets in a brazier, see rivet.
- 5
slangOne who manufactures certain illegal drugs, especially meth.
Police found two meth cooks working in the illicit lab.
- 6
slangA session of manufacturing certain illegal drugs, especially meth.
- 7
A fish, the European striped wrasse, Labrus mixtus.
- 8
An unintended solution to a chess problem, considered to spoil the problem.
verb
- 1
To prepare food for eating, typically by heating it, combining it with other ingredients, seasoning it, preparing it for serving, etc.
I'm cooking bangers and mash.
- 2
To apply heat to food in the course of preparing it, particularly in a way that transforms it rather than simply making it warmer.
- 3
To undergo cooking.
The dinner is cooking on the stove.
- 4
To smelt.
- 5
To be uncomfortably hot.
Look at that poor dog shut up in that car on a day like today - it must be cooking in there.
- 6
slangTo kill, destroy, or otherwise render useless or inoperative through exposure to excessive heat or radiation.
- 7
slangTo execute by electric chair.
- 8
slangTo hold on to a grenade briefly after igniting the fuse, so that it explodes almost immediately after being thrown.
I always cook my frags, in case they try to grab one and throw it back.
- 9
obsoleterareTo make the noise of the cuckoo.
- 10
UKobsoleteTo throw.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Cook in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | cuisinier, cuisinière, cuistot, chef , cuisiner, cuire or faire cuire |
| German | Koch, Köchin , kochen, garen |
| Portuguese | cozinheiro, cozinheira , cozinhar , torrar |
| Spanish | cocinero, cocinera , cocinar, cocer, nixquear , cocinarse |
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 cook come from?
From Middle English cook, from Old English cōc (“a cook”), from Latin cocus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook, become ripe”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).