What does "cog" mean?
A tooth on a gear.
Cog
/kɒɡ/ name, noun, verb
name, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A tooth on a gear.
- Grammar: cog is listed as name, noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: beat, beguile, bilk, boat.
- Useful contrasts: central figure, linchpin.
- Usage evidence: You're just a cog in the machine.
How to use "cog"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "cog" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "cog" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "cog" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "cog" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "cog" is acting as name, noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "beat" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "cog", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A tooth on a gear.
- 2 A partially clinker-built, flat-bottomed, square-rigged mediaeval ship of burden or war, with a round, bulky hull and a single mast, typically 15 to 25 meters in length, in use from ca. 1150 to 1500. historical
"The name of the ship was Dawn Treader. She was only a little bit of a thing compared with one of our ships, or even with the cogs, dromonds, carracks and galleons which Narnia had owned when Lucy and Edmund had reigned there under Peter as the High King, for nearly all navigation had died out in the reigns of Caspian's ancestors."
- 3 A trick or deception; a falsehood.
"False suggestions, shamelesse cogs, and impious forgeries."
- 4 Alternative form of cogue (“wooden vessel for milk”). alt-of, alternative
- 5 Initialism of center of gravity. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
Show 9 more definitions
- 6 tooth on the rim of gear wheel wordnet
- 7 A gear; especially, a cogwheel.
"She said: " We're not wasting time. While the cogs of Parliament continue to whir, we will continue to work on the rolling stock and infrastructure strategy, the national transport integrated strategy, and our accessibility roadmap."
- 8 The hypothetical precursor ship type of the above said to be in use during the early Middle Ages, variously alleged to be Frisian or Scandinavian. historical
- 9 Abbreviation of course over ground. abbreviation, alt-of
- 10 a subordinate who performs an important but routine function wordnet
- 11 An unimportant individual in a greater system.
"just a cog in the machine"
- 12 A small fishing boat. broadly
- 13 A projection or tenon at the end of a beam designed to fit into a matching opening of another piece of wood to form a joint.
- 14 One of the rough pillars of stone or coal left to support the roof of a mine.
Verb
- 1 To furnish with a cog or cogs.
- 2 To load (a die) so that it can be used to cheat.
- 3 join pieces of wood with cogs wordnet
- 4 Of an electric motor or generator, to snap preferentially to certain positions when not energized. intransitive
- 5 To cheat; to play or gamble fraudulently.
"1726, Jonathan Swift (debated), Molly Mog For guineas in other men's breeches, / Your gamesters will palm and will cog."
Show 4 more definitions
- 6 roll steel ingots wordnet
- 7 To seduce, or draw away, by adulation, artifice, or falsehood; to wheedle; to cozen; to cheat.
"I'll mountebank their loves, Cog their hearts from them."
- 8 To plagiarize.
"[…] his themes and exercises were in constant demand for what we called cogging and American students rather grandly called plagiarization. Shakespeare and Eliot plagiarized; we grimly cogged in the early morning-oh, […]"
- 9 To obtrude or thrust in, by falsehood or deception; to palm off.
"to cog in a word"
Proper Noun
- 1 Initialism of Church of God: numerous, mostly unrelated Christian denominations. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
Antonyms
central figurelinchpin
Example
"You're just a cog in the machine."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "cog"?
Common synonyms include: beat, beguile, bilk, boat, burn, canoe.
How do you use "cog" in a sentence?
You're just a cog in the machine.
How do you pronounce "cog"?
Pronounced /kɒɡ/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
Inherited from Middle English cogge, from Old Norse *kogge, *koggr (see Old Swedish kogge, kogger), from Proto-Germanic *kuggō (“cog, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *gugā (“hump, ball”), from *gēw- (“to bend, arch”). Compare Lithuanian gugà (“pommel, hump, hill”). Cognates includes: Swedish kugg, kugge (“cog tooth”), Norwegian kugg (“cog”). The meaning of “cog” in carpentry derives from association with a tooth on a cogwheel. Compare Old Swedish koggavidher (“cog wood”), “wood reserved for a millwheel”. See also dialectal English cag (“stump”), keg; Old Norse kaggi (“keg”) + -gi (diminutive suffix), from the Germanic base *kagô (“bush, branch, stalk, stump”); also found in Bavarian Kag (“the stalk or stem of a cabbage”); dialectal Swedish kage (“treestump; piece of wood; post”), kagg or kagge (“scythe handle”); Norwegian Nynorsk kage or kagge (“low lying bush, small tree”), dialectal kagg (“scythe handle”); Old English ċeacga (“broom, furze, gorse”), whence English chag (“branch”), also Old English cyċġel, English cudgel (“knotty club”). The ultimate origin could be related to English cog (“cargo boat”) (Dutch kogge), probably named for its “round swollen” appearance.
Etymology 2
From Middle English cogge, from Middle Dutch kogge, cogghe (modern kogge), from Proto-Germanic *kuggō, from Proto-Indo-European *gugā (“hump, ball”) (compare Lithuanian gugà (“pommel, hump, hill”)), from *gēw- (“to bend, arch”). See etymology 1 above.
Etymology 3
Uncertain. Both verb and noun appear first in 1532.