cotton wool
/ˈkɒtən wʊl/
"cotton-wool" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cotton wool” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Raw fibers of cotton before being processed.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cotton-wool · cotton wool · English
cotton wool · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cotton wool |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkɒtən wʊl/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “cotton wool” in English
Rare enough to double-check
cotton wool is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkɒtən wʊl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for cotton wool in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is cotton wool, spelled C-O-T-T-O-N- -W-O-O-L.
Definition
- 1Raw fibers of cotton before being processed.
- 2Soft, absorbent cotton for medical or cosmetic use, protective padding, etc.
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.