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PlainSpell

cork

/kɔɹk/noun, verb, adjective

cork is spelled C-O-R-K: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 5.1 times per million words in written English, the 11,015th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, cork means “The dead protective tissue between the bark and cambium in woody plants, with suberin deposits making it impervious to gasses and water” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cork is corks.

How many letters and syllables are in cork?

Letters4: C-O-R-K
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing5.1 times per million words; the 11,015th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Rhymes with
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is cork?

Cork appears 5.1 times per million words in written English, the 11,015th 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 cork?

  • US /kɔɹk/
  • UK /kɔːk/

Cork 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-cork.ogg, EN-AU_ck1_cork.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with cork

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

caulk vs cork0 B

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with cork?

8 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as cork from its last stressed vowel (/ɔɹk/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: rock.

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 cork

  • corks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • corking participle, present
  • corked participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does cork mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The dead protective tissue between the bark and cambium in woody plants, with suberin deposits making it impervious to gasses and water.

  2. 2

    The phellem of the cork oak, used for making bottle stoppers, flotation devices, and insulation material.

  3. 3

    A bottle stopper made from this or any other material.

    Snobs feel it's hard to call it wine with a straight face when the cork is made of plastic.

  4. 4

    An angling float, also traditionally made of oak cork.

  5. 5

    The cork oak, Quercus suber.

  6. 6

    An aerialist maneuver involving a rotation where the rider goes heels over head, with the board overhead.

verb

  1. 1

    To seal or stop up, especially with a cork stopper.

  2. 2

    To blacken (as) with a burnt cork.

  3. 3

    To leave the cork in a bottle after attempting to uncork it.

  4. 4

    To fill with cork.

  5. 5

    To tamper with (a bat) by drilling out part of the head and filling the cavity with cork or similar light, compressible material.

    He corked his bat, which was discovered when it broke, causing a controversy.

  6. 6

    AustraliaTo injure through a blow; to induce a haematoma.

    The vicious tackle corked his leg.

  7. 7

    To position one's drift net just outside of another person's net, thereby intercepting and catching all the fish that would have gone into that person's net.

  8. 8

    To block (a street) illegally, to allow a protest or other activity to take place without traffic.

  9. 9

    To perform such a maneuver.

adjective

  1. 1

    Having the property of a head over heels rotation.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Cork in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchliège, phellème, suber ((botany) tissue that grows from the cork cambium), bouchon (bottle stopper), cork (aerialist corkscrew maneuver)
GermanStöpsel, Korken (bottle stopper), Kork (phellem of the cork oak)
Portugueserolha (bottle stopper), cortiça (phellem of the cork oak), arrolhar (to seal with a stopper, especially with cork)
Spanishfalsete (bottle stopper), corcho (phellem of the cork oak)

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 cork come from?

From Middle English cork (“oak bark, cork”), from Middle Dutch curc (“cork (material or object)”), either from Spanish corcho (“cork (material or object)”) (also corcha or corche) or from Old Spanish alcorque (“cork sole”). Doublet of cortex.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after cork