puck
/pʌk/noun, verb
puck is spelled P-U-C-K: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.3 times per million words in written English, the 12,397th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, puck means “The mischievous fairy-like creature from English folklore, like Puck from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of puck is pucks.
How many letters and syllables are in puck?
| Letters | 4: P-U-C-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.3 times per million words; the 12,397th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is puck?
Puck appears 4.3 times per million words in written English, the 12,397th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce puck?
- /pʌk/
- /pʊk/
Puck has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-puck.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of puck
- pucks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- pucking participle, present
- pucked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does puck mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
archaicA mischievous or hostile spirit.
- 2
The mischievous fairy-like creature from English folklore, like Puck from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
- 3
A hard rubber disc; any other flat disc meant to be hit across a flat surface in a game.
- 4
CanadaAn object shaped like a puck.
- 5
A pointing device with a crosshair.
- 6
A penalty shot.
- 7
Irelandbilly goat
- 8
A body position between the pike and tuck positions, with knees slightly bent and folded in; open tuck.
verb
- 1
IrelandTo hit, strike.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does puck come from?
From Middle English pouke, from Old English pūca (“goblin, demon”), from Proto-West Germanic *pūkō, from Proto-Germanic *pūkô (“a goblin, spook”), of uncertain origin.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).