cuckoo
/ˈkʊkuː/
"cuckoo" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cuckoo” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #24,132 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #24,132
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of various birds, of the family Cuculidae within the order Cuculiformes, famous for laying its eggs in the nests of other species; but especially a common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), that has a c...
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 | cuckoo |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkʊkuː/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #24,132 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cuckoo” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cuckoo is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkʊkuː/. Corpus data places it at rank #24,132 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for cuckoo, with forms such as "ccuckoo", "ccukoo", and "cucckoo". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "cuck", "cuckold", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English cokkou, kokkow, cukkuk, gokkouȝ, probably from Old French cocu, coquu, cucu (whence French coucou); ultimately onomatopoeic of the song of the male Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), perhaps via Latin cucūlus (“cuckoo”). Compare dialectal … The correct English form is cuckoo, spelled C-U-C-K-O-O.
Definition
- 1Any of various birds, of the family Cuculidae within the order Cuculiformes, famous for laying its eggs in the nests of other species; but especially a common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), that has a characteristic two-note call.
- 2The sound of that particular bird.
- 3The bird-shaped figure found in cuckoo clocks.
- 4The cuckoo clock itself.
- 5A person who inveigles themselves into a place where they should not be (used especially in the phrase a cuckoo in the nest).
- 6Someone who is crazy.
- 7Alternative form of coo-coo (Barbadian food).
Etymology
From Middle English cokkou, kokkow, cukkuk, gokkouȝ, probably from Old French cocu, coquu, cucu (whence French coucou); ultimately onomatopoeic of the song of the male Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), perhaps via Latin cucūlus (“cuckoo”). Compare dialectal English gowkoo (“cuckoo”). Displaced Middle English gnokken (“cuckoo”) and native Middle English yeke, ȝek (from Old English ġēac (“cuckoo”)), see English gowk. The UK sense is by analogy from the bird's practice of brood parasitism.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccuckoo,ccukoo,cucckoo,cuckkoo,cucko,cucoko,cukcoo,ucckoo
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cuckoo - 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 "cuckoo"?
What does "cuckoo" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "cuckoo"?
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Using “cuckoo”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-U-C-K-O-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkʊkuː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cuck” - see the side-by-side comparison. cuckoo vs cuck
- 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.