Skip to main content
PlainSpell

raccoon

/ɹæˈkun/noun

raccoon is spelled R-A-C-C-O-O-N: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.9 times per million words in written English, the 20,356th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “raccoon vs racoon” about 170 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, raccoon means “An omnivorous, nocturnal mammal native to the Americas, of the genus Procyon, typically with a mixture of gray, brown, and black fur, a mask-like…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of raccoon is raccoons.

How many letters and syllables are in raccoon?

Letters7: R-A-C-C-O-O-N
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.9 times per million words; the 20,356th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Rhymes with

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is raccoon?

Raccoon appears 1.9 times per million words in written English, the 20,356th 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 raccoon?

  • UK /ɹəˈkuːn/
  • US /ɹæˈkun/
  • US /ɹəˈkun/

Raccoon has 2 syllables (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: En-us-raccoon.ogg, En-au-raccoon.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with raccoon

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

raccoon vs racoon170 G

Also written: racoon.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with raccoon?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as raccoon from its last stressed vowel (/un/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of raccoon

  • raccoons plural
  • racoon
  • rarowcun
  • r'coon
  • coon

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does raccoon mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    An omnivorous, nocturnal mammal native to the Americas, of the genus Procyon, typically with a mixture of gray, brown, and black fur, a mask-like marking around the eyes and a striped tail.

  2. 2

    The common raccoon (Procyon lotor).

  3. 3

    Any mammal of the subfamily Procyoninae, a procyonine.

  4. 4

    Any mammal of the family Procyonidae, a procyonid.

  5. 5

    proscribedAny mammal superficially resembling a raccoon, such as a raccoon dog.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Raccoon in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchraton laveur commun, raton laveur, chaoui, chat sauvage, chat-chouage (nocturnal omnivore living in North America…), procyoniné (any mammal of the subfamily Procyoninae)
GermanWaschbär, Schupp (nocturnal omnivore living in North America…)
Portugueseguaxinim (nocturnal omnivore living in North America…)
Spanishmapache, oso lavador, zorra manglera, gato manglatero, mapachín (nocturnal omnivore living in North America…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does raccoon come from?

From arocoun (1608), from Powhatan ärähkun, from ärähkuněm (“he scratches with his hands”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after raccoon