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PlainSpell

cuckoo

cuc·koo/ˈkuku/noun, verb, adjective

cuckoo is spelled C-U-C-K-O-O, 2 syllables: cuc·koo. The wrong spelling people search most is cookoo: about 260 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 15 of all searches for the word. Cuckoo is a noun meaning “Any of various birds, of the family Cuculidae within the order Cuculiformes, famous for laying its eggs in…”. The plural of cuckoo is cuckoos.

How many letters and syllables are in cuckoo?

Letters6: C-U-C-K-O-O
Syllables2: cuc·koo
In writing1.4 times per million words; the 24,170th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, cookoo, about 260 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell cuckoo?

Cuckoo is spelled C-U-C-K-O-O. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 15 of the searches for cuckoo in either form.

cuckoothe right spelling3,530 searches a month
cookooo in place of u, o in place of c260 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is cuckoo?

Cuckoo appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 24,170th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce cuckoo?

  • UK /ˈkʊkuː/
  • British /ˈkɵkʉw/
  • US /ˈkuku/

Cuckoo has 2 syllables, split cuc·koo in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-cuckoo.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with cuckoo

Also written: coo-coo, koo-koo, ku ku jiao.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with cuckoo?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as cuckoo from its last stressed vowel (/uku/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of cuckoo

  • cuckoos plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • cuckooing participle, present
  • cuckooed participle, past
  • more cuckoo comparative
  • most cuckoo superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does cuckoo mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    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 characteristic two-note call.

  2. 2

    The sound of that particular bird.

  3. 3

    The bird-shaped figure found in cuckoo clocks.

  4. 4

    The cuckoo clock itself.

  5. 5

    A person who inveigles themselves into a place where they should not be (used especially in the phrase a cuckoo in the nest).

  6. 6

    slangSomeone who is crazy.

  7. 7

    Alternative form of coo-coo (Barbadian food).

  8. 8

    colloquialAlternative form of ku ku jiao (the penis)

verb

  1. 1

    To make the call of a cuckoo.

  2. 2

    To repeat something incessantly.

  3. 3

    UKTo take over the home of a vulnerable person for the purposes of carrying out organized crime in a concealed way.

adjective

  1. 1

    slangCrazy; not sane.

    I think I'm going cuckoo!

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Cuckoo in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcoucou (the bird), coucoulement (the sound), coucouler (to make the call of a cuckoo)
GermanKuckuck (the bird), kuckuck (the sound)
Portuguesecuco (the bird), cucar, cucular (to make the call of a cuckoo)
Spanishcuco, cuclillo, críalo (the bird)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does cuckoo come from?

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. The Malaysian and Singaporean sense is a calque of Hokkien 咕咕鳥 /咕咕鸟 (ku-kú-chiáu)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after cuckoo