what's cooking
"what-s-cooking" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“what's cooking” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A greeting, similar to how are you?; what's happening?; what's up?; what's new?
Corpus desk
Index EN-what-s-cooking · what's cooking · English
what's cooking · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "W" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | what's cooking |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “what's cooking” in English
Rare enough to double-check
what's cooking is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aninterjection. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
what's cooking doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is what's cooking, spelled W-H-A-T-'-S- -C-O-O-K-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1A greeting, similar to how are you?; what's happening?; what's up?; what's new?
- 2Expression of concern, asking for an explanation, similar to what's going on?; what's the problem?; what gives?
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how what's cooking appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Hi there babe, what's cooking?
What's cooking, good-looking?
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.