# cuckold

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈkʌ.kəʊld/ · frequency rank #34,847

## Definitions
1. A man married to an adulterous spouse, especially when he is unaware or unaccepting of the fact.
2. A man who is attracted to or aroused by the sexual infidelity of a partner.
3. A West Indian plectognath fish, Rhinesomus triqueter.
4. The scrawled cowfish, Acanthostracion quadricornis and allied species.
5. Synonym of fringed filefish.

## Etymology
From Middle English cokolde, cokewold, cockewold, kukwald, kukeweld, from Old French cucuault; a compound of cucu (“cuckoo”) and Old French -auld. The word references the behavior of cuckoo birds where they lay their eggs in another bird’s nest. Cucu is either a directly derived onomatopoeic derivative of the cuckoo's call, or from Latin cucūlus. Latin cucūlus is a compound of onomatopoeic cucu (compare Late Latin cucus) and the diminutive suffix -ulus.
Old French -auld is from Frankish *-wald (similar suffixes are used in some personal names within other Germanic languages as well; compare English Harold, for instance), a suffixal use of Frankish *wald (“wielder, ruler, leader”), from Proto-Germanic *waldaz (compare German Gewalt, from the related *waldą (“power, might”)), from *waldaną (“to rule”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (“to be strong; to rule”).
Appears in Middle English in noun form circa 1250 as cokewald. First known use of the verb form is 1589.

## Easily confused with
- **cuckoo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cuckold-vs-cuckoo)

## Common misspellings (11)
`ccuckold`, `ccukold`, `cucckold`, `cuckkold`, `cucklod`, `cuckodl`, `cuckoldd`, `cuckolld`, `cucokld`, `cukcold`, `ucckold`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/cuckold