coot
/kuːt/noun
coot is spelled C-O-O-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 52,954th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, coot means “Any of various aquatic birds of the genus Fulica that are mainly black with a prominent frontal shield on the forehead” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of coot is coots.
How many letters and syllables are in coot?
| Letters | 4: C-O-O-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 52,954th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
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 coot?
Coot appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 52,954th 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 coot?
- /kuːt/
Coot 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-au-coot.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with coot?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as coot.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: octo, coto, toco.
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 coot
- coots plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does coot mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any of various aquatic birds of the genus Fulica that are mainly black with a prominent frontal shield on the forehead.
- 2
UKcolloquialA foolish or eccentric fellow
A silly coot
- 3
slangBody louse (Pediculus humanus).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Coot in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense bird:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | foulque |
| German | Blässhuhn, Blessralle, Wasserhuhn, Belche |
| Portuguese | galeirão |
| Spanish | focha común, focha |
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 coot come from?
From Middle English cote, coote, cute, cuytt (“coot”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from an unrecorded Old English word, or borrowed from Middle Dutch coet, cuut, kuut (“coot”) (whence modern Dutch koet and meerkoet (“coot”)). Possibly related to Middle High German kūz, kūze (modern German Kauz (“owl”)), Old English cȳta (“kite, bittern”) (whence English kite), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *kūt (“bird of prey”). See kite.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).