cuy

/[ˈkuj]/ noun

Letters

3 characters

Frequency Rank

#56,229

in Spanish word usage

Misspellings

0

tracked variants

Confusables

0

similar word pairs

cuy is aSpanishnoun. It means: Mamífero roedor sudamericano, estrictamente herbívoro. Pesa alrededor de un kilo, vive en áreas abiertas y utiliza hoyos y madrigueras para ocultarse y protegerse; tienen una longevidad de cuatro a... Pronounced [ˈkuj].

Key facts for cuy
PropertyValue
Headwordcuy
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ˈkuj]
Letters3
Frequency rank#56,229
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of cuy in Spanish word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The Spanish entry for cuy is 3 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈkuj]. Corpus data places it at rank #56,229 in overall Spanish word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No misspelling variants are generated for cuy in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable Spanish patterns.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct Spanish form is cuy, spelled C-U-Y, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Mamífero roedor sudamericano, estrictamente herbívoro. Pesa alrededor de un kilo, vive en áreas abiertas y utiliza hoyos y madrigueras para ocultarse y protegerse; tienen una longevidad de cuatro a seis años. Los incas domesticaron y criaron estos roedores para aprovechar su carne y su piel. En la actualidad se le cría para usarlo en experimentos científicos y cada vez más, para tenerlos como mascotas.
  2. 2
    Buscapiés, cohete.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #56,229 in Spanish

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "cuy"?
"cuy" is spelled C-U-Y. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈkuj].
What does "cuy" mean?
As a noun, "cuy" means: Mamífero roedor sudamericano, estrictamente herbívoro. Pesa alrededor de un kilo, vive en áreas abiertas y utiliza hoyos y madrigueras para ocultarse y protegerse; tienen una longevidad de cuatro a...
How do you pronounce "cuy"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cuy" is [ˈkuj]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cuy" come from?
"cuy" is a Spanish word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby Spanish words

Other entries that begin with the letter C in our Spanish index:

Explore PlainSpell

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.