cool

Name: cool, French Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

\kul\

/\kul\/ adj

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“cool” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #1,159) as an adjective. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#1,159
frequency rank, French: 8,609
“C” headwords: 3
tracked misspellings: 20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Calme, détendu, qui n’est pas du genre à s’angoisser ni à s’énerver (en parlant d’une personne).

Corpus desk

Index FR-cool · cool · French

cool · rank #1,159 · 3 variants · 20 confusables

FREQ-COMMON #1,159
LEN-MID 4 letters
VOW-2 2 vowels
CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
VAR-LOW 3 variants
BOOK-DENSE 8,609
PHOTO-FINISH chien

Nearest frequency peer: chien (-1 rank slots)

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.

avion

98,845
calme

98,844
chien

98,843
cool

98,842
eh

98,841
enquête

98,840

What this shows Les barres placent « cool » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

cool vs cul

50% similar

cool vs cou

50% similar

cool vs coq

50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for cool
Property	Value
Headword	cool
Language	French
Part of speech	Adjective
IPA	\kul\
Letters	4
Frequency rank	#1,159
Misspellings tracked	3
Confusable pairs	20
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « cool »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).coolse place ici:

#1,159

#1#100#1K#10K#100K

← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « chien » (#1,158), « eh » (#1,160), « calme » (#1,157). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cool » est au #1,159. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for cool is neighbouring look-alikes ("cul", "cou", …), not just typos; it is anadjective pronounced \kul\. Frequency #1,159 among 8,609 “C” headwords. 5 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for cool, with forms such as "ccool", "cooll", and "ocol". 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, "cul", "cou", "coq", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is cool, spelled C-O-O-L.

Definition

1
Calme, détendu, qui n’est pas du genre à s’angoisser ni à s’énerver (en parlant d’une personne).
2
Sympathique, décontracté, qui n’est pas du genre à causer des problèmes (en parlant d’une personne), qui ne fait pas strict ou sévère (en parlant d'une chose).
3
Agréable, qui procure du plaisir.
4
Super, génial, sensas, formidable, stylé.
5
Qualifie un style de jazz apparu dans les années 1940.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how cool appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

Reste cool !
On a un prof super cool, genre métissé, cheveux hirsutes, fringues cooles et classes.

Synonyms

chill

Antonyms

coincé décevant inquiet stressé strict

This word in other languages

cool(English)fixe(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

ccool
cooll
ocol

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cool - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

Edit distance from "cool"

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "cool"?

"cool" is spelled C-O-O-L. The IPA pronunciation is \kul\.

What does "cool" mean?

As an adjective, "cool" means: Calme, détendu, qui n’est pas du genre à s’angoisser ni à s’énerver (en parlant d’une personne).

What words are commonly confused with "cool"?

"cool" is commonly confused with "cul", "cou", "coq". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.

How do you pronounce "cool"?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cool" is \kul\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.

What language does "cool" come from?

"cool" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.

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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cool", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

port#1,169 pose#1,147 parc#1,144 vote#1,128