cowherd
"cowherd" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cowherd” is uncommon English (frequency #69,761 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #69,761
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - One who herds cattle; a cowboy.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cowherd · cowherd · English
cowherd · rank #69,761 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #69,761
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH covalently
Nearest frequency peer: covalently (-1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “cowherd”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- costumer
costumer
30,242 corpus weight
- covalently
covalently
30,241 corpus weight
- cowherd
cowherd
30,240 corpus weight
- CPB
CPB
30,239 corpus weight
- creaming
creaming
30,237 corpus weight
- crema
crema
30,236 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “cowherd” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cowherd |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #69,761 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “cowherd” in English
Rare enough to double-check
cowherd is uncommon English at frequency #69,761 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "One who herds cattle; a cowboy.".
Zero misspellings are on record for cowherd in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English couherde, from Old English cūhierde, equivalent to cow + herd (“herder”). Doublet of Coward (the surname). Cognate with German Kuhhirte (“cowherd”). Compare shepherd, goatherd, swineherd, etc. The correct English form is cowherd, spelled C-O-W-H-E-R-D.
Definition
- 1One who herds cattle; a cowboy.
Etymology
From Middle English couherde, from Old English cūhierde, equivalent to cow + herd (“herder”). Doublet of Coward (the surname). Cognate with German Kuhhirte (“cowherd”). Compare shepherd, goatherd, swineherd, 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); 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cowherd", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).