Pronunciation: [kˈə͡ʊbɹə] (IPA) 
The spelling of "cobra" reflects its pronunciation in English, which is /ˈkoʊbrə/. The first syllable "co" is pronounced with a long "o" sound as in "go." The second syllable "bra" has a short "a" sound like in "cat." The silent "e" at the end of the word does not affect the pronunciation. In some other languages, such as Hindi and Sanskrit, this word is spelled as "कोब्रा," reflecting the different phonetic structure of those languages.
Cobra, noun:
1. A venomous snake of the family Elapidae, known for its iconic hooded appearance, native to Asia and Africa. The cobra is characterized by its elongated body, broad head, and large, round-shaped eyes. It has the ability to raise the front portion of its body and flatten its neck into a distinctive hood when threatened, displaying its intimidating appearance. Cobras are highly venomous snakes, with venom primarily used for hunting and self-defense. They inject their venom using hollow fangs to subdue their prey and are capable of delivering a potentially lethal bite to humans.
2. Colloquially, "cobra" can refer to any similar-looking snake, particularly those with hoods or aggressive behaviors. However, the term is most commonly used to specifically describe species belonging to the genus Naja, such as the Indian cobra (Naja naja) or the Egyptian cobra (Naja haje).
3. Informally, "cobra" is also used to describe the ventilator accessory known as a "Cobra Tube," used for directing airflow into specific areas or tubes in mechanical ventilators.
4. Additionally, Cobra is an acronym for "Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act," a U.S. federal law that allows workers to continue their group health insurance coverage for a certain period after leaving their job, under certain circumstances.
Naja tripudians.
A practical medical dictionary. By Stedman, Thomas Lathrop. Published 1920.
* The statistics data for these misspellings percentages are collected from over 15,411,110 spell check sessions on www.spellchecker.net from Jan 2010 - Jun 2012.
The word "cobra" originated from Portuguese, derived from the Latin term "colubra", meaning "snake". The Latin term "colubra" entered Old Portuguese as "cobra" and eventually spread to various other languages.
