roof
/ɹuːf/noun, verb
roof is spelled R-O-O-F: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,725th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, roof means “The external covering at the top of a building” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of roof is roofs or rooves.
How many letters and syllables are in roof?
| Letters | 4: R-O-O-F |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 35 times per million words; the 2,725th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none 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 roof?
Roof appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,725th 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 roof?
- /ɹuːf/
- /ɹʊf/
- UK /ɹuːf/
Roof 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: En-uk-roof.ogg, En-us-roof.ogg, En-us-roof2.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with roof?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as roof from its last stressed vowel (/uf/, British pronunciation):
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 roof
- roofs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- rooves UK, plural
- roofing participle, present
- roofed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does roof mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The external covering at the top of a building.
The roof was blown off by the tornado.
- 2
The top external level of a building.
Let's go up to the roof.
- 3
The upper part of a cavity.
The palate is the roof of the mouth.
- 4
The surface or bed of rock immediately overlying a bed of coal or a flat vein.
- 5
An overhanging rock wall.
- 6
archaicslangA hat.
verb
- 1
To cover or furnish with a roof.
- 2
To traverse buildings by walking or climbing across their roofs.
- 3
slangTo put into prison, to bird.
- 4
To shelter as if under a roof.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Roof in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | toit |
| German | Dach , überdachen |
| Portuguese | telhado , céu, teto |
| Spanish | tejado, techo, techado, techumbre, cubrición, tejadillo |
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 roof come from?
From Middle English rhof, rof, roof, rooff, rufe, ruffe, from Old English hrōf (“roof; heaven, sky”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrōf, from Proto-Germanic *hrōfą (“roof”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱrapo- (“roof”), from *krāwə- (“to cover, heap”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).