# chan vs Chao

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### chan
*noun · IPA /t͡ʃæn/ · frequency rank #7,105*
An IRC channel.

### Chao
*name · IPA /t͡ʃaʊ/ · frequency rank #26,718*
A surname from Chinese.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chan-vs-chao