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cover

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

5 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "cover", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "cover" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "cover" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

cover is aEnglishnoun. It means: A lid. Pronounced /ˈkʌvɚ/. It ranks #867 in English word frequency. Often confused with COVID and covet.

Key facts for cover
PropertyValue
Headwordcover
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈkʌvɚ/
Letters5
Frequency rank#867
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of cover in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for cover is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkʌvɚ/. Corpus data places it at rank #867 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 23 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for cover, with forms such as "ccover", "coevr", and "coverr". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "COVID", "covet", "covey", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁epsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi Proto-Indo-European *h₂wer- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti L… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is cover, spelled C-O-V-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A lid.
  2. 2
    Area or situation which screens a person or thing from view.
  3. 3
    The front and back of a book, magazine, CD package, etc.
  4. 4
    The top sheet of a bed.
  5. 5
    A cloth or similar material, often fitted, placed over an item such as a car or sofa or food to protect it from dust, rain, insects, etc. when not being used.
  6. 6
    A bag or packet.
  7. 7
    A cover charge.
  8. 8
    A setting at a restaurant table or formal dinner.
  9. 9
    A new performance or rerecording of a previously recorded song; a cover version; a cover song.
  10. 10
    A fielding position on the off side, between point and mid off, about 30° forward of square; a fielder in this position.
  11. 11
    A tarpaulin or other device used to cover the wicket during rain, to prevent it getting wet.
  12. 12
    The area of the stumps that is blocked by the batsman so as to defend the wicket.
  13. 13
    A backup incase any player sustains injury during nets or midseries. Originally have to be declared part of squad before match.
  14. 14
    A collection (or family) of subsets of a given set, whose union contains every element of said original set.
  15. 15
    An envelope complete with stamps and postmarks etc.
  16. 16
    A solid object, including terrain, that provides protection from enemy fire.
  17. 17
    In commercial law, a buyer’s purchase on the open market of goods similar or identical to the goods contracted for after a seller has breached a contract of sale by failure to deliver the goods contracted for.
  18. 18
    An insurance contract; coverage by an insurance contract.
  19. 19
    A persona maintained by a spy or undercover operative; cover story.
  20. 20
    A swindler's confederate.
  21. 21
    The portion of a slate, tile, or shingle that is hidden by the overlap of the course above.
  22. 22
    In a steam engine, the lap of a slide valve.
  23. 23
    The distance between reinforcing steel and the exterior of concrete.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁epsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi Proto-Indo-European *h₂wer- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Latin operiō Latin cooperiō Old French covrirbor. Middle English coveren English cover From Middle English coveren, borrowed from Old French covrir, cueuvrir (modern French couvrir), from Late Latin coperire, from Latin cooperiō (“I cover completely”), from co- (intensive prefix) + operiō (“I close, cover”). Displaced native Middle English thecchen and bethecchen (“to cover”) (from Old English þeccan, beþeccan (“to cover”)), Middle English helen, (over)helen, (for)helen (“to cover, conceal”) (from Old English helan (“to conceal, cover, hide”)), Middle English wrien, (be)wreon (“to cover”) (from Old English (be)wrēon (“to cover”)), Middle English hodren, hothren (“to cover up”) (from Low German hudren (“to cover up”)). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the original sense of the verb and noun cover was “hide from view” as in its cognate covert. Except in the limited sense of “cover again”, the word recover is unrelated and is cognate with recuperate. Cognate with Spanish cubrir (“to cover”).

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ccover,coevr,coverr,covre,covver,cvoer,ocver

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for cover

Misspelling Variants of "cover"

ccover6coevr5coverr6covre5covver6cvoer5ocver5
Misspelling Variants of "cover"

Frequency rank: #867 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "cover"?
"cover" is spelled C-O-V-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈkʌvɚ/.
What does "cover" mean?
As a noun, "cover" means: A lid.
What words are commonly confused with "cover"?
"cover" is commonly confused with "COVID", "covet", "covey". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cover"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cover" is /ˈkʌvɚ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "cover"?
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁epsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi Proto-Indo-European *h₂wer- Proto-Indo-Europea... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.