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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

coot.

Any of various aquatic birds of the genus Fulica that are mainly black with a prominent frontal shield on the forehead.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/kuːt/
  1. Any of various aquatic birds of the genus Fulica that are mainly black with a prominent frontal shield on the forehead.

  2. A foolish or eccentric fellow

    UK · colloquial
    A silly coot
    An old coot
Where this word comes from

From Middle English cote, coote, cute, cuytt (“coot”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from an unrecorded Old English word, or borrowed from Middle Dutch coet, cuut, kuut (“coot”) (whence modern Dutch koet and meerkoet (“coot”)). Possibly related to Middle High German kūz, kūze (modern German Kauz (“owl”)), Old English cȳta (“kite, bittern”) (whence English kite), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *kūt (“bird of prey”). See kite.

noun/kuːt/
  1. Body louse (Pediculus humanus).

    slang
Where this word comes from

Compare cootie.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.