koro
"koro" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“koro” is uncommon English (frequency #69,185 among 9,255 “K” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #69,185
- frequency rank, English
- 9,255
- “K” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A delusional syndrome found in Malay and southern Chinese populations, characterized by a belief that the subject's penis will retract into the abdomen and cause death.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | koro |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #69,185 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “koro” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
koro is uncommon English at frequency #69,185 among 9,255 “K” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A delusional syndrome found in Malay and southern Chinese populations, characterized by a belief that the subject's penis will retract into the abdomen and cause death.".
koro has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Possibly from Makasar garring koro' (lit. koro illness, "shrinking of the toilet", Matthes 1859), Buginese, or Malay. See "Koro § Etymology and geographical background" at Wikipedia for a full discussion. The correct English form is koro, spelled K-O-R-O.
Definition
- 1A delusional syndrome found in Malay and southern Chinese populations, characterized by a belief that the subject's penis will retract into the abdomen and cause death.
Etymology
Possibly from Makasar garring koro' (lit. koro illness, "shrinking of the toilet", Matthes 1859), Buginese, or Malay. See "Koro § Etymology and geographical background" at Wikipedia for a full discussion.
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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Using “koro”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is K-O-R-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.