cooking
/ˈkʊkɪŋ/noun, adjective, verb
cooking is spelled C-O-O-K-I-N-G: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,288th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, cooking means “The process of preparing food by using heat” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cooking is cookings.
How many letters and syllables are in cooking?
| Letters | 7: C-O-O-K-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 28 times per million words; the 3,288th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is cooking?
Cooking appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,288th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce cooking?
- US /ˈkʊkɪŋ/
- British /ˈkɵkɪŋ/
- /ˈkuːkɪŋ/
Cooking has 2 syllables (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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-cooking.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with cooking?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as cooking from its last stressed vowel (/ʊkɪŋ/):
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 cooking
- cookings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cooking mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The process of preparing food by using heat.
- 2
rareAn instance of preparing food by using heat.
- 3
One's ability to prepare food; cookery.
My cooking isn't very good. I don't have any idea how to prepare a good meal.
- 4
The style or genre of food preparation.
What you've produced is a perfect example of authentic Chinese cooking.
- 5
The cheapest available beer for sale in a public house.
adjective
- 1
Designed or suitable for culinary purposes.
I filled the cooking pot with water, and poured some cooking sherry into the skillet.
- 2
informalIn progress, happening.
The project took a few days to gain momentum, but by the end of the week, things were really cooking.
- 3
Cheap; better suited for use in recipes than drinking.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of cook
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Cooking in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | cuisine , art culinaire |
| German | Kochen , Küche, Kochkunst |
| Portuguese | cozinha, cozimento , culinária |
| Spanish | cocinado, cocción, cocimiento, cocedura, cochura |
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 cooking come from?
From cook + -ing. The noun and adjective follow from the verb. The use of the word cooking to describe cheap bitter was popularized by the title character of the BBC sitcom Oh No, It’s Selwyn Froggitt (1974-1978). It refers to cooking sherry, a kind of sherry used in cooking but not suitable for drinking on its own.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).