kye
/kaɪ/
"kye" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kye” is uncommon English (frequency #71,641 among 1,236 “K” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #71,641
- frequency rank, English
- 1,236
- “K” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - plural of cow
Corpus desk
Index EN-kye · kye · English
kye · rank #71,641 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #71,641
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,236
- PHOTO-FINISH kuru
Nearest frequency peer: kuru (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “kye”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Kristof
Kristof
28,362 corpus weight
- kuru
kuru
28,361 corpus weight
- kye
kye
28,360 corpus weight
- Kyler
Kyler
28,359 corpus weight
- Laconia
Laconia
28,358 corpus weight
- Ladysmith
Ladysmith
28,357 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “kye” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | kye |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kaɪ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #71,641 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “kye” in English
Rare enough to double-check
kye is uncommon English at frequency #71,641 among 1,236 “K” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /kaɪ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "plural of cow".
No generated misspelling entries exist for kye in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English ky, kye, from Old English cȳ (“cows”), plural of cū (“cow”). Cognate with Dutch koeien (“cows”), German Kühe (“cows”), Danish køer (“cows”), Icelandic kýr (“cows”). More at cow and compare kine (“cows”). The correct English form is kye, spelled K-Y-E.
Definition
- 1plural of cow
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how kye appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Ay, that I do, to my cost. She and her black cat, too, live owre near my milk kye, Brindle and Hawky gi' but half the milk they should gi', and we wat weel whare the ither half gangs to.
devil the move would the factor at Meikle House make to […] mend the roof of the byre that leaked like a sieve on the head of Mistress Munro when she milked the kye on a stormy night.
Etymology
From Middle English ky, kye, from Old English cȳ (“cows”), plural of cū (“cow”). Cognate with Dutch koeien (“cows”), German Kühe (“cows”), Danish køer (“cows”), Icelandic kýr (“cows”). More at cow and compare kine (“cows”).
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 "kye", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).