kuru
/ˈkʉː.ɹʉː/
"kuru" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kuru” is uncommon English (frequency #71,640 among 9,255 “K” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #71,640
- frequency rank, English
- 9,255
- “K” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A chronic, progressive, fatal central nervous system disease found mainly among the Fore and neighboring peoples of New Guinea, caused by a prion that probably resembles the scrapie agent of sheep,...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | kuru |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkʉː.ɹʉː/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #71,640 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “kuru” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
kuru is uncommon English at frequency #71,640 among 9,255 “K” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkʉː.ɹʉː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A chronic, progressive, fatal central nervous system disease found mainly among the Fore and neighboring peoples of New Guinea, caused by a prion that probably resembles the scrapie agent of sheep,...".
kuru doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Fore kúru (literally “trembling, shivering”). Perhaps eventually from Proto-Gorokan *kút(V) (“dangling, shaking”) if cognate with the reduplicated element of Yagaria gúli gúli hu- (“be loose, rattle”). The correct English form is kuru, spelled K-U-R-U.
Definition
- 1A chronic, progressive, fatal central nervous system disease found mainly among the Fore and neighboring peoples of New Guinea, caused by a prion that probably resembles the scrapie agent of sheep, transmissible to nonhuman primates, and believed to be transmitted by ritual cannibalism.
Etymology
From Fore kúru (literally “trembling, shivering”). Perhaps eventually from Proto-Gorokan *kút(V) (“dangling, shaking”) if cognate with the reduplicated element of Yagaria gúli gúli hu- (“be loose, rattle”).
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “kuru”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is K-U-R-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkʉː.ɹʉː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.