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PlainSpell

rocket

/ˈɹɑk.ɪt/noun, verb

rocket is spelled R-O-C-K-E-T: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,224th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, rocket means “A cylindrical projectile that can be fired to a great height through combustion, (specifically) a type of firework of this form, typically exploding…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of rocket is rockets.

How many letters and syllables are in rocket?

Letters6: R-O-C-K-E-T
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing20 times per million words; the 4,224th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is rocket?

Rocket appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,224th 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 rocket?

  • UK /ˈɹɒk.ɪt/
  • US /ˈɹɑk.ɪt/
  • /ˈɹɑ.kət/

Rocket 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-rocket.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with rocket?

4 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as rocket from its last stressed vowel (/ɑkɪt/):

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 rocket

  • rockets plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • rocketing participle, present
  • rocketed participle, past

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

What does rocket mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A cylindrical projectile that can be fired to a great height through combustion, (specifically) a type of firework of this form, typically exploding with light and colour; a skyrocket.

  2. 2

    A blunt lance head used in jousting.

  3. 3

    A long vehicle or craft propelled by a rocket engine; a missile or rocket-propelled spacecraft.

  4. 4

    An engine operating similarly to the pyrotechnic, generating thrust by the expulsion of hot gases; a rocket engine.

  5. 5

    Something that travels high in the air or with great speed; especially (sport), a hard shot.

  6. 6

    UKslangA severe reprimand; a telling-off.

  7. 7

    slangAn ace (the playing card).

  8. 8

    ScotlandslangA stupid or crazy person.

  9. 9

    A leaf vegetable of species Eruca sativa or Eruca vesicaria.

  10. 10

    Any plant of the genus Eruca.

  11. 11

    Rocket larkspur (Consolida regalis, syn. Delphinium consolida).

verb

  1. 1

    To accelerate swiftly and powerfully.

  2. 2

    To fly vertically.

  3. 3

    To rise or soar rapidly.

  4. 4

    To experience sudden fame, popularity, or success.

    After spending years in obscurity, the band finally rocketed last week.

  5. 5

    To carry something in a rocket.

  6. 6

    To attack something with rockets.

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

How do you abbreviate rocket?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of rocket: rkt.

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

Rocket in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfusée (rocket engine), roquette (military: non-guided missile), pétard (rocket-propelled firework – see also skyrocket)
GermanRakete (rocket engine)
Portuguesefoguete (rocket engine)
Spanishmotor de cohete (rocket engine), cohete (military: non-guided missile)

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 rocket come from?

From Italian rocchetta, from Old Italian rocchetto (“rocket”, literally “a bobbin”), diminutive of rocca (“a distaff”), from Lombardic rocko (“spinning wheel”), from Proto-West Germanic *rokkō, from Proto-Germanic *rukkô (“a distaff, a staff with flax fibres tied loosely to it, used in spinning thread”). Cognate with Old High German rocco, rocko, roccho, rocho ("a distaff"; > German Rocken (“a distaff”)), Swedish rock (“a distaff”), Icelandic rokkur (“a distaff”), Middle English rocke (“a distaff”). More at rock⁴.

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

What to look up after rocket