coop

A coop is most famously the pen where farmers keep chickens—a safe place for them to roost and lay eggs. You might say, “The hens are back in the coop for the night.” We also use it in phrases like “cooped up,” meaning shut indoors or kept in a small space for too long.

Separate from that is “co-op” (with a hyphen), which is short for “cooperative”: a business or group run by its members. For example, you might shop at a food co-op or live in a housing co-op. Just remember: the chicken coop rhymes with “soup,” while “co-op” is said in two beats (“KO-op”).

In English, “coop” and “co-op” look similar but point to different ideas. “Coop” originally means an enclosure for poultry—especially chickens. Picture a rustic wooden structure in a farmyard; that's a classic chicken coop, providing shelter and security for the birds. A typical use would be: "The farmer built a new coop to protect his hens from foxes." In this sense, it functions as both a noun (the cage) and a verb (to coop something up), meaning to confine or shut someone or something in a small space.

However, there’s a second word that looks similar: “co-op,” a shortened form of “cooperative”—an organization or enterprise owned and run jointly by its members. This could be anything from a housing co-op (where residents collectively own their building) to a food co-op (where members share in buying and distributing groceries). In these instances, you will often see the hyphen (“co-op”) to help distinguish it from the chicken’s home.

Despite the look-alike spelling, these two uses don’t come from the same source: “coop” (the enclosure) comes from an older word meaning “cage,” while “co-op” is simply an abbreviation of “cooperative.” They also sound different. The chicken coop is /kuːp/ (like “hoop”), while “co-op” is two syllables, often /koʊˌɑp/ in American English.