woof
/wuːf/
"woof" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“woof” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #24,959 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #24,959
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The set of yarns carried by the shuttle of a loom which are placed crosswise at right angles to and interlaced with the warp; the weft.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | woof |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /wuːf/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #24,959 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “woof” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for woof is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /wuːf/. Corpus data places it at rank #24,959 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for woof, with forms such as "owof", "wof", and "wofo". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "wow", "WTF", "WTO", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is derived from Middle English wof, oof, owf (“threads in a piece of woven fabric at right angles to the warp, weft, woof; also sometimes the warp; transverse filaments of a spider web”) [and other forms] (the forms beginning with w were influenced… The correct English form is woof, spelled W-O-O-F.
Definition
- 1The set of yarns carried by the shuttle of a loom which are placed crosswise at right angles to and interlaced with the warp; the weft.
- 2A woven fabric; also, the texture of a fabric.
- 3The thread or yarn used to form the weft of woven fabric; the fill, the weft.
- 4Synonym of weaving (“the process of making woven material on a loom”).
- 5Something which is interwoven with another thing.
- 6An underlying foundation or structure of something; a fabric.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English wof, oof, owf (“threads in a piece of woven fabric at right angles to the warp, weft, woof; also sometimes the warp; transverse filaments of a spider web”) [and other forms] (the forms beginning with w were influenced by warp and weft), from Old English ōwef, āwef, from ō-, ā- (prefix meaning ‘away; from; off; out’) + *wef (“web”) (only attested in the form gewef (“woof”); from wefan (“to weave”), from Proto-West Germanic *weban (“to weave”), from Proto-Germanic *webaną (“to weave”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid; to weave”)). The verb is derived from the noun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: owof,wof,wofo,wooff,wwoof
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of woof - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "woof"?
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Using “woof”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-O-O-F - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /wuːf/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “wow” - see the side-by-side comparison. woof vs wow
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.