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PlainSpell

cough

/kɔf/verb, noun, interjection

cough is spelled C-O-U-G-H: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 8.9 times per million words in written English, the 7,672nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, cough means “Sometimes followed by up: to force (something) out of the lungs or throat by pushing air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in cough?

Letters5: C-O-U-G-H
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing8.9 times per million words; the 7,672nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
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 cough?

Cough appears 8.9 times per million words in written English, the 7,672nd 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 cough?

  • UK /kɒf/
  • UK /kɔːf/
  • US /kɔf/

Cough 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-cough.wav, En-us-cough.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with cough

Sounds like: qoph (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with cough?

6 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as cough from its last stressed vowel (/ɔf/):

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 cough

  • coughs present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • coughing participle, present
  • coughed participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural

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

What does cough mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    Sometimes followed by up: to force (something) out of the lungs or throat by pushing air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound), and out through the mouth.

    Sometimes she coughed up blood.

  2. 2

    To cause (oneself or something) to be in a certain condition in the manner described in etymology 1 sense 1.1.

    He almost coughed himself into a fit.

  3. 3

    To express (words, etc.) in the manner described in etymology 1 sense 1.1.

  4. 4

    To surrender (information); to confess.

  5. 5

    slangChiefly followed by up: to give up or hand over (something); especially, to pay up (money).

  6. 6

    To push air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound) and out through the mouth, usually to expel something blocking or irritating the airway.

    I breathed in a lungful of smoke by mistake, and started to cough.

  7. 7

    To make a noise like a cough.

    The engine coughed and sputtered.

  8. 8

    slangTo surrender information; to confess, to spill the beans.

noun

  1. 1

    A sudden, often involuntary expulsion of air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound), and out through the mouth.

    Behind me, I heard a distinct, dry cough.

  2. 2

    A bout of repeated coughing (verb etymology 1 sense 2.1); also, a medical condition that causes one to cough.

    whooping cough

  3. 3

    A noise or sound like a cough (etymology 2, noun sense 1).

  4. 4

    A vocalisation from a bird or other animal resembling a human cough.

interjection

  1. 1

    Used to represent the sound of a cough (noun sense 1), especially when focusing attention on a following utterance, often an attribution of blame or a euphemism: ahem.

    He was–cough–indisposed.

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

Cough in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Germanhusten (to force (something) out of the lungs or throat…), Husten (sudden, often involuntary expulsion of air from…)
Frenchtoux (sudden, often involuntary expulsion of air from…), tousser (to push air from the lungs through the glottis…)
Portuguesetosse (sudden, often involuntary expulsion of air from…), tossir (to push air from the lungs through the glottis…)
Spanishtos (sudden, often involuntary expulsion of air from…), toser (to push air from the lungs through the glottis…), cof (used to represent the sound of a cough)

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 cough come from?

From Middle English coughen, coghen (“to cough; to vomit”) [and other forms], from Old English *cohhian (compare Old English cohhetan (“to bluster; to riot; to cough (?)”)), from Proto-West Germanic *kuh- (“to cough”), ultimately of onomatopoeic origin.

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

What to look up after cough