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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

cot.

A simple bed, especially one for portable or temporary purposes.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/kɒt/Boston, Canada, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/kɔt/Australia, British, Scotland, Southern, Standard/kɑt/General-American/kɔːʈ/
  1. A simple bed, especially one for portable or temporary purposes.

    Canada · Philippines · US
  2. A bed for infants or small children, with high, often slatted, often moveable sides.

    Commonwealth · Ireland · UK
  3. A wooden bed frame, slung by its corners from a beam, in which officers slept before the introduction of bunks.

    historical
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Hindi खाट (khāṭ), from Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀔𑀝𑁆𑀝𑀸 (khaṭṭā), from Sanskrit खट्वा (khaṭvā, “bedstead”).

noun/kɒt/Boston, Canada, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/kɔt/Australia, British, Scotland, Southern, Standard/kɑt/General-American/kɔːʈ/
  1. A cottage or small homestead.

    archaic
  2. A pen, coop, or similar shelter for small domestic animals, such as sheep or pigeons.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English cot, cote, from Old English cot and cote (“cot, cottage”), from Proto-Germanic *kutą, *kutǭ (compare Old Norse kot, Middle High German kūz (“execution pit”)), from Scythian (compare Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬙𐬀 (kata, “chamber”)). Cognate to Dutch kot (“student room; small homestead”). Doublet of cote; more distantly related to cottage.

noun/kɒt/Boston, Canada, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/kɔt/Australia, British, Scotland, Southern, Standard/kɑt/General-American/kɔːʈ/
  1. A small, crudely-formed boat.

Where this word comes from

From Irish coite, coit (“small boat”), possibly from Medieval Latin cattia (“pan”).

noun/kɒt/Boston, Canada, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/kɔt/Australia, British, Scotland, Southern, Standard/kɑt/General-American/kɔːʈ/
  1. A cover or sheath; a fingerstall.

    a roller cot (the clothing of a drawing roller in a spinning frame)
    a cot for a sore finger
Where this word comes from

From dialectal cot, cote, partly from Middle English cot (“matted wool”), from Old English *cot, *cotta, from Proto-Germanic *kuttô (“woolen fabric, wool covering”); and partly from Middle English cot, cote (“tunic, coat”), from Old French cote, from the same Germanic source (see English coat). Possibly influenced by English cotton.

noun/kɒt/Boston, Canada, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/kɔt/Australia, British, Scotland, Southern, Standard/kɑt/General-American/kɔːʈ/
  1. A man who does household work normally associated with women.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Contraction of cot-quean.

noun/kɒt/Boston, Canada, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/kɔt/Australia, British, Scotland, Southern, Standard/kɑt/General-American/kɔːʈ/
  1. vulva; vagina.

    dated
Where this word comes from

Variant of cock

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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.