cool one's heels
"cool-one-s-heels" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cool one's heels” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To wait, especially impatiently or restlessly.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cool one's heels |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cool one's heels” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
cool one's heels is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To wait, especially impatiently or restlessly.".
Zero misspellings are on record for cool one's heels in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is cool one's heels, spelled C-O-O-L- -O-N-E-'-S- -H-E-E-L-S.
Definition
- 1To wait, especially impatiently or restlessly.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “cool one's heels”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-O-L- -O-N-E-'-S- -H-E-E-L-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.