Cocoon

How to spell cocoon

6 letters · 2 syllables

9 of the 22 people asked to spell cocoon in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

The most common mistake is cacoon. The letters people get wrong are highlighted.

cacoon cocoon

What people typed instead

• cacoon5 people

How to pronounce cocoon

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cocoon mean?

1. nounThe protective silky case that a caterpillar or other insect larva spins around itself while it transforms.
2. verbTo wrap or envelop someone or something in a soft, sheltering layer, or to retreat into cosy seclusion.

Cocoon in a sentence

• noun

  The silkworm spun a glossy cocoon on the mulberry branch.

• verb

  On cold nights she likes to cocoon herself in a thick duvet.

• noun

  The children watched the moth emerge from its cocoon in the jar.

• verb

  The nurses like to cocoon each newborn in a warm blanket.

Where does cocoon come from?

Language of origin: French

Cocoon came into English in the early 1700s from the French cocon, the name for the silky case a caterpillar spins around itself. The French word in turn grew out of the Provencal (Occitan) coucoun, meaning a shell or an eggshell, which was a diminutive of coca, simply 'shell'. The underlying idea is therefore a little protective shell, which fits the silk pod perfectly. From the literal insect sense English later developed the figurative use of a cocoon as any soft, sheltering wrapping, and by the twentieth century the verb 'to cocoon' described retreating into safe, cosy seclusion. The spelling trap is real: there is only a single c at the front, followed by the doubled o of -coon, so the temptation to write a second c (as in 'raccoon') should be resisted.

How the word is built

• cocoon (from Provencal coucoun: shell, eggshell), a single root borrowed whole; note one c then -coon