Kaw

/kɔː/

//kɔː// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"kaw" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Kaw” is uncommon English (frequency #67,567 among 1,236 “K” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#67,567
frequency rank, English
1,236
“K” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A member of a particular Native American tribe in Oklahoma and parts of Kansas.

Corpus desk

Index EN-kaw · Kaw · English

Kaw · rank #67,567 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #67,567
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,236
  • PHOTO-FINISH katsu

Nearest frequency peer: katsu (-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.

Frequency neighbourhood for “Kaw”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “Kaw” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Kaw
PropertyValue
HeadwordKaw
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/kɔː/
Letters3
Frequency rank#67,567
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “Kaw” sits in English frequency

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).Kawlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “katsu” (#67,566), “KCL” (#67,568), “Kennington” (#67,570). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Kaw is uncommon English at frequency #67,567 among 1,236 “K” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /kɔː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A member of a particular Native American tribe in Oklahoma and parts of Kansas.".

No misspelling variants are generated for Kaw in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is Kaw, spelled K-A-W.

Definition

  1. 1
    A member of a particular Native American tribe in Oklahoma and parts of Kansas.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how Kaw appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. In the winter of 1866 the Cheyennes stole forty-two horses from a Kaw hunting party on the upper Arkansas, and following a murder of a Kaw herder at a buffalo camp near Fort Zarah a year later, the Kaws attacked a Cheyenne encampment[.]

Synonyms

Kansa

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 "Kaw"?
"Kaw" is spelled K-A-W. The IPA pronunciation is /kɔː/.
What does "Kaw" mean?
As a noun, "Kaw" means: A member of a particular Native American tribe in Oklahoma and parts of Kansas.
How do you pronounce "Kaw"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Kaw" is /kɔː/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Kaw" come from?
"Kaw" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Kaw", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

KCL#67,568KYC#67,577iwa#67,544iru#67,542

What to do next

You've looked up "Kaw". Here's where to go from here.

  • Usage frequency rank #67,567 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more English words in the "K" letter cohort. K–Z browse
  • PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list