big cheese
"big-cheese" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“big cheese” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A very important figure, especially a high-ranking person in an organization.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | big cheese |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “big cheese” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for big cheese is 10 letters long, classified as a noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A very important figure, especially a high-ranking person in an organization.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for big cheese, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From big + cheese (“wealth, fame, importance”). Earliest use to mean importance from 1910. The correct English form is big cheese, spelled B-I-G- -C-H-E-E-S-E.
Definition
- 1A very important figure, especially a high-ranking person in an organization.
Etymology
From big + cheese (“wealth, fame, importance”). Earliest use to mean importance from 1910.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “big cheese”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-I-G- -C-H-E-E-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.