cobra

/\kɔ.bʁa\/ noun

Letters

5 characters

Frequency Rank

#22,800

in French word usage

Misspellings

7

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

cobra is aFrenchnoun. It means: Nom vernaculaire ambigu donné à cinq genres de serpents venimeux d’Afrique et d’Asie, de la famille des élapidés, et qui se distinguent par leur habitude de se dresser verticalement en position de ... Pronounced \kɔ.bʁa\. Often confused with cor and cra.

Key facts for cobra
PropertyValue
Headwordcobra
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kɔ.bʁa\
Letters5
Frequency rank#22,800
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of cobra in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for cobra is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kɔ.bʁa\. Corpus data places it at rank #22,800 in overall French 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.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for cobra, with forms such as "cbora", "ccobra", and "cobar". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cor", "cra", "cour", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

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 French form is cobra, spelled C-O-B-R-A, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Nom vernaculaire ambigu donné à cinq genres de serpents venimeux d’Afrique et d’Asie, de la famille des élapidés, et qui se distinguent par leur habitude de se dresser verticalement en position de combat et d’exhiber une coiffe caractéristique (genres: Hemachatus, Laticauda, Naja, Ophiophagus, et Pseudohaje).
  2. 2
    Employé seul et sans mention du nom scientifique, ce terme désigne généralement le genre Naja, et dans la majorité des cas, le cobra indien, appelé vulgairement « serpent à lunettes » (Naja naja), une espèce de serpent extrêmement venimeux habitant les six pays du croissant formé entre le Pakistan et le Bhoutan.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: cbora,ccobra,cobar,cobbra,cobrra,corba,ocbra

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for cobra

Misspelling Variants of "cobra"

cbora5ccobra6cobar5cobbra6cobrra6corba5ocbra5
Misspelling Variants of "cobra"

Frequency rank: #22,800 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "cobra"?
"cobra" is spelled C-O-B-R-A. The IPA pronunciation is \kɔ.bʁa\.
What does "cobra" mean?
As a noun, "cobra" means: Nom vernaculaire ambigu donné à cinq genres de serpents venimeux d’Afrique et d’Asie, de la famille des élapidés, et qui se distinguent par leur habitude de se dresser verticalement en position de ...
What words are commonly confused with "cobra"?
"cobra" is commonly confused with "cor", "cra", "cour". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cobra"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cobra" is \kɔ.bʁa\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cobra" come from?
"cobra" is a French 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 French words

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

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.