Koi

How to spell koi

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce koi

What does koi mean?

1. nounA large ornamental carp, often brightly patterned, kept in garden ponds and water features.

Koi in a sentence

• The garden centre sells young koi for outdoor ponds.

• He fed the koi each morning before leaving for work.

Where does koi come from?

Language of origin: Japanese

This word comes straight from Japanese, where koi simply means 'carp'. The decorative pond fish prized for their bright patterns are properly called nishikigoi in Japan, a term that joins nishiki, meaning 'brocade' or richly coloured silk, with the koi for carp; English shortened the whole idea to the single syllable koi. The fish themselves were bred for their colours by rice farmers in the Niigata region of Japan during the nineteenth century, and the name travelled into English in the twentieth century as the hobby of keeping them spread westward. Because the original Japanese spelling uses a 'k', English kept it, which is exactly the trap: the word sounds identical to 'coy' but is never spelled with a 'c'. Worth remembering too that koi carries no native plural, so one koi and many koi look the same.

How the word is built

• koi (Japanese for carp; from nishikigoi, the brocaded ornamental carp)

Words that sound like koi

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• coy: Reluctant to give details or commit to a clear answer, often in a deliberately shy or teasing way.