koa
/kəʊə/
"koa" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“koa” is uncommon English (frequency #56,853 among 1,236 “K” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #56,853
- frequency rank, English
- 1,236
- “K” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A large tree of species Acacia koa (family Fabaceae) which is endemic to and common on the islands of Hawaii; or the wood of this tree.
Corpus desk
Index EN-koa · koa · English
koa · rank #56,853 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #56,853
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,236
- PHOTO-FINISH knifed
Nearest frequency peer: knifed (-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 “koa”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- kiva
kiva
43,152 corpus weight
- kneed
kneed
43,151 corpus weight
- knickerbock…
knickerbocker
43,150 corpus weight
- knifed
knifed
43,149 corpus weight
- koa
koa
43,148 corpus weight
- ladyboy
ladyboy
43,144 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “koa” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | koa |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kəʊə/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #56,853 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “koa” in English
Rare enough to double-check
koa is uncommon English at frequency #56,853 among 1,236 “K” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /kəʊə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A large tree of species Acacia koa (family Fabaceae) which is endemic to and common on the islands of Hawaii; or the wood of this tree.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for koa, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Hawaiian koa. Doublet of toa. The correct English form is koa, spelled K-O-A.
Definition
- 1A large tree of species Acacia koa (family Fabaceae) which is endemic to and common on the islands of Hawaii; or the wood of this tree.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how koa appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
As you get higher, native vegetation takes over, so a prospect might be framed by the dangling leaves of the beautiful koa tree, each leaf a gently curved, trembling sickle.
The outer frame is made of koa and maple.
Etymology
Borrowed from Hawaiian koa. Doublet of toa.
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 "koa", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).