Skip to main content

cash

/ˈkæʃ/noun, verb, adjective

cash is spelled C-A-S-H: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 83 times per million words in written English, the 1,272nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “cache vs cash” about 30 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, cash means “Money in the form of notes or bills and coins, as opposed to checks, credit or electronic transactions” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cash is cashes.

How many letters and syllables are in cash?

Letters4: C-A-S-H
Syllables1
In writing83 times per million words; the 1,272nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is cash?

Cash appears 83 times per million words in written English, the 1,272nd 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 cash?

  • US /ˈkæʃ/
  • US [ˈkʰæʃ]
  • British /ˈkaʃ/

Cash has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-cash.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with cash

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

Sounds like: cache (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with cash?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as cash from its last stressed vowel (/æʃ/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of cash

  • cashes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • cashing participle, present
  • cashed participle, past
  • more cash comparative
  • most cash superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does cash mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Money in the form of notes or bills and coins, as opposed to checks, credit or electronic transactions.

    How are you off for cash? After you bounced those checks last time, they want to be paid in cash.

  2. 2

    Liquid assets, money that can be traded quickly, as distinct from assets that are invested and cannot be easily exchanged.

  3. 3

    informalMoney.

  4. 4

    CanadaCash register, or the counter in a business where the cash register is located.

    Let me just bring these to the cash for you.

  5. 5

    An instance of winning a cash prize.

  6. 6

    archaicA place where money is kept, or where it is deposited and paid out; a money box.

  7. 7

    The low-denomination coin of southern India until 1818.

  8. 8

    Any of several similar coins in Southeast and East Asia, particularly the imperial Chinese copper coin.

verb

  1. 1

    To exchange (a check/cheque) for money in the form of notes/bills.

  2. 2

    slangTo obtain a payout from a tournament.

  3. 3

    To disband. To do away with, to kill.

adjective

  1. 1

    slangGreat; excellent; cool.

noun

as CASH
  1. 1

    Acronym of calcium aluminium silicate hydrate.

  2. 2

    USAcronym of Centers for Agricultural Safety and Health.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Cash in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchespèces, liquide, comptant (money in the form of notes/bills and coins), encaisser (to exchange (a check/cheque) for money)
GermanBargeld, Bares, Cash (money in the form of notes/bills and coins), einlösen (to exchange (a check/cheque) for money), bar (great, excellent, cool)
Portuguesedinheiro, dinheiro vivo, caixa, numerário (money in the form of notes/bills and coins)
Spanishefectivo, cash, guita, güita, numerario, dinero contante (money in the form of notes/bills and coins)

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 cash come from?

From late Middle French caisse (“money-box”), itself borrowed from Occitan caissa, from Latin capsa (“box”), ultimately from capiō (“take, seize”), from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“grasp”). Doublet of case, chase, and chasse. Compare Spanish caja (“box”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after cash