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PlainSpell

woof

/wʊf/noun, verb, interjection

woof is spelled W-O-O-F: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 24,745th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, woof means “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” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of woof is woofs.

How many letters and syllables are in woof?

Letters4: W-O-O-F
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.3 times per million words; the 24,745th 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 woof?

Woof appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 24,745th 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 woof?

  • UK /wuːf/
  • US /wʊf/
  • US /wuf/

As an interjection (“Used to indicate the sound of a dog barking, or something…”): /wʊf/.

As an interjection (“Oof”): /ʰᵿʰ/.

Woof 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-us-woof.oga, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-woof.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with woof?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as woof from its last stressed vowel (/ʊf/):

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 woof

  • woofs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • woofing participle, present
  • woofed participle, past

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

What does woof mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    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.

  2. 2

    A woven fabric; also, the texture of a fabric.

  3. 3

    The thread or yarn used to form the weft of woven fabric; the fill, the weft.

  4. 4

    obsoleterareSynonym of weaving (“the process of making woven material on a loom”).

  5. 5

    Something which is interwoven with another thing.

  6. 6

    An underlying foundation or structure of something; a fabric.

  7. 7

    rareThe sound a dog makes when barking; a bark.

  8. 8

    rareA sound resembling a dog's bark.

  9. 9

    rareA low-frequency sound of bad quality produced by a loudspeaker.

noun

as WOOF
  1. 1

    Initialism of well-off older folks.

verb

  1. 1

    rareTo place (yarns) crosswise at right angles to and interlaced with the warp in a loom.

  2. 2

    rareTo interweave (something) with another thing; to weave (several things) together.

  3. 3

    rareTo say (something) in an aggressive or boastful manner.

  4. 4

    informalrareTo eat (food) voraciously; to devour, to gobble, to wolf.

  5. 5

    rareOf a dog: to bark.

  6. 6

    rareOf a person or thing: to make a sound resembling a dog's bark.

  7. 7

    rareTo speak in an aggressive or boastful manner.

  8. 8

    rareAlternative form of wwoof.

interjection

  1. 1

    rareUsed to indicate the sound of a dog barking, or something resembling it.

  2. 2

    rareUsed to express strong physical attraction for someone.

  3. 3

    rareOof.

  4. 4

    rarePhew.

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

Woof in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchtrame (set of yarns carried by the shuttle of a loom…), ouaf (the sound of a dog barking), oua-oua (sound a dog makes when barking – see also bark), aboyer (of a dog: to bark – see also bark)
GermanSchussfaden (set of yarns carried by the shuttle of a loom…), wau, wuff (the sound of a dog barking), rawau (sound a dog makes when barking – see also bark)
Portuguesetrama (set of yarns carried by the shuttle of a loom…), au au (the sound of a dog barking), ão-ão, au-au (sound a dog makes when barking – see also bark), latir (of a dog: to bark – see also bark)
Spanishtrama (set of yarns carried by the shuttle of a loom…), guau (the sound of a dog barking)

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 woof come from?

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”)).

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

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