Meaning & use
cookbook or cook book
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A book that contains recipes and instructions for cooking.
Grammar: Countable noun; use 'a cookbook' or 'cookbooks'. The two-word form 'cook book' is rarely used today.
Patterns
- a cookbook with recipes
- look something up in a cookbook
- write a cookbook
She bought a new cookbook with easy dinner recipes.
I found this cake recipe in my grandmother's old cookbook.
He plans to write a cookbook about local street food.
Word forms
| plural | cookbooks |
|---|
Common combinations
- a recipe cookbook
- This recipe cookbook has clear photos for every dish.
- follow a cookbook
- It's hard to follow a cookbook if you don't know the basic terms.
- a best-selling cookbook
- Her best-selling cookbook has sold over a million copies.
- cookbook author
- The cookbook author gave a talk at the food festival.
Synonyms and how they differ
- recipe book
- A common alternative that means the same thing; 'cookbook' is more usual in American English.
Word family
- cook verb
- To prepare food by heating it.
- cookery noun
- The skill or activity of cooking.
Commonly confused: cookbook or cook book or cook book?
cookbook or cook book vs cook book
The two-word spelling is old-fashioned; use 'cookbook' as one word in modern writing.
Practice
Which is the correct modern spelling?
Choose one answer.
The standard modern spelling is 'cookbook' as one word. 'Cook book' is old-fashioned, 'cook-book' with a hyphen is not standard, and 'cookbooke' is not a word.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cookbook or cook book”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.