kook
/kuːk/
"kook" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kook” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #43,741) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #43,741
- frequency rank, English
- 1,236
- “K” headwords
- 3
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An eccentric, strange or crazy person.
Corpus desk
Index EN-kook · kook · English
kook · rank #43,741 · 3 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #43,741
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 3 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,236
- PHOTO-FINISH Kodiak
Nearest frequency peer: Kodiak (-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 neighbours of confusable “kook”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- Khomeini
Khomeini
56,264 corpus weight
- Kodiak
Kodiak
56,261 corpus weight
- kook
kook
56,260 corpus weight
- Kronos
Kronos
56,259 corpus weight
- Kunming
Kunming
56,258 corpus weight
- ladle
ladle
56,257 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “kook” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
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 | kook |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kuːk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #43,741 |
| Misspellings tracked | 3 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “kook”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for kook is neighbouring look-alikes ("Kos", "kor", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /kuːk/. Frequency #43,741 among 1,236 “K” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for kook, with forms such as "kkook", "kookk", and "okok". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Kos", "kor", "Kuo", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Possibly from cuckoo. The correct English form is kook, spelled K-O-O-K.
Definition
- 1An eccentric, strange or crazy person.
- 2A boardsport participant who lacks style or skill; a newbie who acts as if they are better at the sport than they are.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how kook appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The kook we will always have with us, to paraphrase Jesus, but the kooks of yore had to work to maintain their kookery and locate fellow kooks. They had to pick up their kook phone, subscribe to the kook newsletter, drive to the kook convention. Nowadays, all the kook has to do is log in to Facebook, where his feed will be enlivened by the chatter of fell…
The administration’s deep cuts to scientific and medical research have been compounded by Trump’s decision to hand control of public health to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a bona fide kook,[…].
Etymology
Possibly from cuckoo.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- kkook
- kookk
- okok
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of kook - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "kook", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).