koala
/koʊˈɑː.lə/
"koala" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“koala” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #27,532 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #27,532
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 17
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A tree-dwelling marsupial, Phascolarctos cinereus, that resembles a small bear with a broad head, large ears and sharp claws, mainly found in eastern Australia.
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 | koala |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /koʊˈɑː.lə/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #27,532 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 17 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “koala” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for koala is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /koʊˈɑː.lə/. Corpus data places it at rank #27,532 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A tree-dwelling marsupial, Phascolarctos cinereus, that resembles a small bear with a broad head, large ears and sharp claws, mainly found in eastern Australia.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for koala, with forms such as "kaola", "kkoala", and "koaal". 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 17 confusable-pair relationships, "kool", "Kona", "Kohl", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Dharug gula or gulawany. The correct English form is koala, spelled K-O-A-L-A.
Definition
- 1A tree-dwelling marsupial, Phascolarctos cinereus, that resembles a small bear with a broad head, large ears and sharp claws, mainly found in eastern Australia.
Etymology
From Dharug gula or gulawany.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: kaola,kkoala,koaal,koalla,kolaa,okala
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of koala - 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 "koala"?
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Using “koala”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is K-O-A-L-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /koʊˈɑː.lə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “kool” - see the side-by-side comparison. koala vs kool
- 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.