cow
/kaʊ/
"cow" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cow” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,670 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,670
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An adult female of the species Bos taurus, especially one that has calved.
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 | cow |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kaʊ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #5,670 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cow” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cow is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kaʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,670 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No generated misspelling entries exist for cow in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CT", "CR", "cs", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws Proto-Germanic *kōz Proto-West Germanic *kō Old English cū Middle English cow English cow Inherited from Middle English cow, cou, from Old English cū (“cow”), from Proto-West Germanic *kō, from Proto-Germanic *kōz (… The correct English form is cow, spelled C-O-W.
Definition
- 1An adult female of the species Bos taurus, especially one that has calved.
- 2Any member of the species Bos taurus that is not of a bucking breed or fighting breed, regardless of sex or age, including steers and calves.
- 3Beef: the meat of cattle as food.
- 4Any bovines or bovids generally, including yaks, buffalo, etc.
- 5A female member of other large species of mammal, including the bovines, moose, whales, seals, hippos, rhinos, manatees, and elephants.
- 6A woman considered unpleasant in some way, particularly one considered nasty, stupid, fat, lazy, or difficult.
- 7A chock: a wedge or brake used to stop a machine or car.
- 8A third-year cadet at West Point.
- 9A fish that is very large for its species, such as a large striped bass or large bluefin tuna.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws Proto-Germanic *kōz Proto-West Germanic *kō Old English cū Middle English cow English cow Inherited from Middle English cow, cou, from Old English cū (“cow”), from Proto-West Germanic *kō, from Proto-Germanic *kōz (“cow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws (“cow”). Cognate with Sanskrit गो (go), Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs), Persian گاو (gâv)), Latvian govs (“cow”), Proto-Slavic *govędo (Serbo-Croatian govedo, Russian говядина (govjadina, “beef”), Scots coo (“cow”), North Frisian ko, kø (“cow”), West Frisian ko (“cow”), Dutch koe (“cow”), Low German Koh, Koo, Kau (“cow”), German Kuh (“cow”), Swedish ko (“cow”), Norwegian ku (“cow”), Icelandic kýr (“cow”), Latin bōs (“ox, bull, cow”) (whence English beef), Armenian կով (kov, “cow”). Doublet of beef. The plural kine is from Middle English kyne, kyn, kuin, kiin, kien (“cows”), either a double plural of Middle English ky, kye (“cows”), equivalent to modern kye + -en, or inherited from Old English cūna (“cows', of cows”), genitive plural of cū (“cow”).
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); 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
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Using “cow”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kaʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “CT” - see the side-by-side comparison. cow vs CT
- 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.