cover
/ˈkʌvɚ/
"cover" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cover” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #867 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #867
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A lid.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cover |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkʌvɚ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #867 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cover” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cover is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, 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 generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for cover, with forms such as "ccover", "coevr", and "coverr". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. 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… The correct English form is cover, spelled C-O-V-E-R.
Definition
- 1A lid.
- 2Area or situation which screens a person or thing from view.
- 3The front and back of a book, magazine, CD package, etc.
- 4The top sheet of a bed.
- 5A 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.
- 6A bag or packet.
- 7A cover charge.
- 8A setting at a restaurant table or formal dinner.
- 9A new performance or rerecording of a previously recorded song; a cover version; a cover song.
- 10A fielding position on the off side, between point and mid off, about 30° forward of square; a fielder in this position.
- 11A tarpaulin or other device used to cover the wicket during rain, to prevent it getting wet.
- 12The area of the stumps that is blocked by the batsman so as to defend the wicket.
- 13A backup incase any player sustains injury during nets or midseries. Originally have to be declared part of squad before match.
- 14A collection (or family) of subsets of a given set, whose union contains every element of said original set.
- 15An envelope complete with stamps and postmarks etc.
- 16A solid object, including terrain, that provides protection from enemy fire.
- 17In 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.
- 18An insurance contract; coverage by an insurance contract.
- 19A persona maintained by a spy or undercover operative; cover story.
- 20A swindler's confederate.
- 21The portion of a slate, tile, or shingle that is hidden by the overlap of the course above.
- 22In a steam engine, the lap of a slide valve.
- 23The 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
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cover - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "cover"?
What does "cover" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "cover"?
How do you pronounce "cover"?
What is the origin of the word "cover"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “cover”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-V-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkʌvɚ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “COVID” - see the side-by-side comparison. cover vs COVID
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.