kudu
/ˈkuːduː/
"kudu" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kudu” is uncommon English (frequency #81,482 among 9,255 “K” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #81,482
- frequency rank, English
- 9,255
- “K” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A large, striped, African antelope of the species Tragelaphus imberbis (lesser kudu) or Tragelaphus strepsiceros (greater kudu).
Corpus desk
Index EN-kudu · kudu · English
kudu · rank #81,482 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #81,482
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 9,255
- PHOTO-FINISH kudzu
Nearest frequency peer: kudzu (+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 “kudu”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Kosh
Kosh
18,525 corpus weight
- Krish
Krish
18,521 corpus weight
- kudu
kudu
18,519 corpus weight
- kudzu
kudzu
18,518 corpus weight
- kultur
kultur
18,517 corpus weight
- lackland
lackland
18,513 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “kudu” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | kudu |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkuːduː/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #81,482 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “kudu” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
kudu is uncommon English at frequency #81,482 among 9,255 “K” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkuːduː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A large, striped, African antelope of the species Tragelaphus imberbis (lesser kudu) or Tragelaphus strepsiceros (greater kudu).".
No misspelling variants are generated for kudu in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Ultimately Khoekhoe kudu-b, through Afrikaans koedoe and French koudou. The correct English form is kudu, spelled K-U-D-U.
Definition
- 1A large, striped, African antelope of the species Tragelaphus imberbis (lesser kudu) or Tragelaphus strepsiceros (greater kudu).
Etymology
Ultimately Khoekhoe kudu-b, through Afrikaans koedoe and French koudou.
This word in other languages
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "kudu", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency 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.