# cook

> English word · Noun · IPA /kʊk/ · frequency rank #2,248

## Definitions
1. A person who prepares food.
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. One who manufactures certain illegal drugs, especially meth.
6. A 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.

## Etymology
From Middle English cook, from Old English cōc (“a cook”), from Latin cocus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook, become ripe”).
Cognates
Cognate with Cimbrian khoch (“cook”), Dutch kok (“cook”), German Koch (“cook”), Luxembourgish Kach (“cook”), Danish kok (“cook”), Icelandic kokkur (“cook”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk kokk (“cook”), Swedish kock (“cook”). Also compare Proto-West Germanic *kokōn (“to cook”) (whence North Frisian kööge, kööki (“to cook, boil”), West Frisian koaitsje (“to cook”), Cimbrian khochan, khòchan (“to cook”), Dutch koken (“to cook”), German kochen (“to cook”), Limburgish kaoke, kauche (“to cook”), Luxembourgish kachen (“to cook”), Vilamovian kocha, koha (“to cook”), Yiddish קאָכן (kokhn, “to cook”)), from Late Latin cocō (“to cook”).

## Easily confused with
- **cop** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-cop)
- **cow** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-cow)
- **cos** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-cos)
- **cox** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-cox)
- **cor** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-cor)
- **cot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-cot)
- **coz** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-coz)
- **coy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-coy)
- **CRO** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-cro)
- **CTO** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-cto)
- **Cov** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-cov)
- **cost** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-cost)
- **cool** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-cool)
- **copy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-copy)
- **core** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-core)
- **cops** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-cops)
- **corn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-corn)
- **crop** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-crop)
- **cope** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-cope)
- **coup** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-coup)

## Common misspellings (5)
`ccook`, `cok`, `coko`, `cookk`, `ocok`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/cook