Standard Lemma guide

cocky

adj · noun · verb · 6 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Canada, Received-Pronunciation: /ˈkɒki/
  • British, Southern, Standard: /ˈkɔkɪj/
  • General-American: /ˈkɑki/
  • Australian: /ˈkɔki/
  • Queensland Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • New-Zealand: /ˈkɒki/
  • New-Zealand: [ˈkɔ̟ki]
  • Scotland: /ˈkɔke/
  • rhymes with -ɒki
  • CMU ARPABET: K AA1 K IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Overly confident; arrogant and boastful.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: airy, arrogant, chesty, authoritarian, biggity, big-headed, blustery, boastful, lordly, bombastic, buggish, cocky, conceited, disdainful, domineering, egotistical, entitled, flatulent, flaunting, full of oneself, glorious, grandiose, hankty, haught, haughty, haut, high-handed, high-hat, high and mighty, highfalutin, hoity-toity, holier-than-thou, hubristic, hubristical, imperious, inflated, insolent, la-di-da, orgulous, ostentatious, overbearing, overweening, pompous, presumptuous, pretentious, priggish, puffed up, sanctimonious, self-important, snobbish, snooty, snotty, stout, stuck up, supercilious, thrasonic, thrasonical, toploftical, toplofty, tumid, turgid, uppish, uppity, uppy, upstage, vain

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Used as a term of endearment, originally for a person of either sex, but later primarily for a man.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Ireland, Newfoundland, UK, colloquial, dated

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A familiar name for a cockatoo.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Australia, New-Zealand, informal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Clipping of cockatoo farmer (“small-scale farmer”); (by extension) any farmer or owner of rural land.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Australia, New-Zealand, abbreviation, also, alt-of, attributive, clipping, informal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cockatoo, crofter

Antonyms: none provided

5

verb

Meaning 5

To operate a small-scale farm.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Australia, New-Zealand, historical, informal, intransitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cockatoo

Antonyms: none provided

6

adjective satellite

Meaning 6

overly self-confident or self-assertive

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • a very cocky young man

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From cock (“male domestic chicken”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense of ‘having the quality of’).

From cock (“male domestic chicken”) + -y (diminutive suffix).

The noun is derived from cock(atoo) + -y (diminutive suffix). The verb is derived from the noun.

Across languages

Translations

76 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Armenian: ամբարտավան (ambartavan) — overly confident
  • Armenian: մեծամիտ (mecamit) — overly confident
  • Armenian: գոռոզ (goṙoz) — overly confident
  • Bulgarian: дързък (dǎrzǎk) — overly confident
  • Bulgarian: самонадеян (samonadejan) — overly confident
  • Catalan: fatxenda — overly confident
  • Catalan: fatxender — overly confident
  • Chinese Mandarin: 驕傲 /骄傲 (jiāo'ào) — overly confident
  • Chinese Mandarin: 自大 (zìdà) — overly confident
  • Chinese Mandarin: 太過自信的 /太过自信的 (tàiguò zìxìn de) — overly confident
  • Chinese Mandarin: 臭屁 (chòupì) — overly confident
  • Czech: domýšlivý — overly confident
  • Czech: namyšlený — overly confident
  • Czech: suverénní — overly confident
  • Danish: kæphøj — overly confident
  • Danish: dumsmart — overly confident
  • Dutch: overmoedig — overly confident
  • Esperanto: aroganta — overly confident
  • Finnish: pöyhkeä — overly confident
  • Finnish: kopea — overly confident
  • Finnish: ylimielinen — overly confident
  • French: arrogant — overly confident
  • French: suffisant — overly confident
  • Galician: arrufado — overly confident
  • German: arrogant — overly confident
  • German: frech — overly confident
  • Greek: ξιπασμένος (xipasménos) — overly confident
  • Greek: αναιδής (anaidís) — overly confident
  • Ancient Greek: ἀναιδής (anaidḗs) — overly confident
  • Hungarian: pimasz — overly confident
  • Hungarian: beképzelt pimasz — overly confident
  • Indonesian: pongah — overly confident
  • Irish: diongbháilte — overly confident
  • Irish: sotalach — overly confident
  • Italian: arrogante — overly confident
  • Italian: impertinente — overly confident
  • Japanese: 横柄な (ōhei na) — overly confident
  • Northern Kurdish: pozbilind — overly confident
  • Northern Kurdish: qure — overly confident
  • Māori: whakatamatama — overly confident
  • Māori: whakapehapeha — overly confident
  • Māori: whakatoatoa — overly confident
  • Māori: whakatamarahi — overly confident
  • Mokilese: aklaplap — overly confident
  • Portuguese: arrogante — overly confident
  • Portuguese: pretensioso — overly confident
  • Russian: зано́счивый (zanósčivyj) — overly confident
  • Russian: де́рзкий (dérzkij) — overly confident
  • Russian: наха́льный (naxálʹnyj) — overly confident
  • Russian: высокоме́рный (vysokomérnyj) — overly confident
  • Russian: хвастли́вый (xvastlívyj) — overly confident
  • Sicilian: spacchiusu — overly confident
  • Sicilian: spertu — overly confident
  • Sicilian: mafiusu — overly confident
  • Sicilian: briganti — overly confident
  • Spanish: arrogante — overly confident
  • Spanish: pedante — overly confident
  • Spanish: chulo — overly confident
  • Spanish: creído — overly confident
  • Spanish: engreído — overly confident
  • Spanish: petulante — overly confident
  • Spanish: bravucón — overly confident
  • Spanish: valentón — overly confident
  • Spanish: gallito — overly confident
  • Spanish: farruco — overly confident
  • Spanish: altanero — overly confident
  • Spanish: cachetón — overly confident
  • Swedish: kaxig — overly confident
  • Tagalog: mayabang — overly confident
  • Tagalog: arrogante — overly confident
  • Tagalog: asbag — overly confident
  • Turkish: kibirli — overly confident
  • Vietnamese: kiêu ngạo — overly confident
  • Vietnamese: ngạo mạn — overly confident
  • Sicilian: puḍḍicinu — used as a term of endearment
  • Sicilian: papareḍḍu — used as a term of endearment