anchovy
/ˈæn.t͡ʃə.vi/noun
anchovy is spelled A-N-C-H-O-V-Y: 7 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 48,230th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, anchovy means “Any small saltwater fish of the Engraulidae family, consisting of 160 species in sixteen genera, those of the genus Engraulis being widely sold as…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of anchovy is anchovies.
How many letters and syllables are in anchovy?
| Letters | 7: A-N-C-H-O-V-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 48,230th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is anchovy?
Anchovy appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 48,230th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce anchovy?
- UK /ˈæn.t͡ʃə.vi/
- UK /ˈæn.t͡ʃəʊ.vi/
- UK /ænˈt͡ʃəʊ.vi/
Anchovy has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-anchovy.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of anchovy
- anchovies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does anchovy mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any small saltwater fish of the Engraulidae family, consisting of 160 species in sixteen genera, those of the genus Engraulis being widely sold as food.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Anchovy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense small saltwater fish:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | anchois |
| German | Sardelle |
| Portuguese | anchova, enchova |
| Spanish | anchoa, boquerón, bocarte, aladroque |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does anchovy come from?
From Spanish anchoa, from Genoese Ligurian anciôa or related Corsican anchjuva, anciua. The term's ultimate origin is unclear; some suggest it may have derived from an unattested Vulgar Latin term *apiuva, from Latin aphyē, apua, from Ancient Greek ἀφύη (aphúē) (which may be formed like Sanskrit अभ्व (ábhva-, “monster”)); others suggest it comes from Basque antxu, anchu (“dried fish”), from anchuva (“dry”), if that Basque term is not itself derived from Latin via some intermediary. None of these hypotheses is satisfactory because of the phonetic irregularities.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).