chagrin
/ˈʃaɡ.ɹɪn/
"chagrin" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chagrin” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #34,427 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #34,427
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Distress of mind caused by a failure of aims or plans, want of appreciation, mistakes etc; vexation or mortification.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chagrin |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈʃaɡ.ɹɪn/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #34,427 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chagrin” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for chagrin is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈʃaɡ.ɹɪn/. Corpus data places it at rank #34,427 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for chagrin, with forms such as "cahgrin", "cchagrin", and "chaggrin". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "chain", "Chapin", "Chaplin", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French chagrin (“sorrow”), from Middle French chagrin (“pain, affliction”) (compare Middle French chagriner, chagrigner (“to experience sorrow”), Old French chagrin (“painful, afflicted”)), probably derived from Old Northern French chagreiner, chagraig… The correct English form is chagrin, spelled C-H-A-G-R-I-N.
Definition
- 1Distress of mind caused by a failure of aims or plans, want of appreciation, mistakes etc; vexation or mortification.
- 2A type of leather or skin with a rough surface.
Etymology
From French chagrin (“sorrow”), from Middle French chagrin (“pain, affliction”) (compare Middle French chagriner, chagrigner (“to experience sorrow”), Old French chagrin (“painful, afflicted”)), probably derived from Old Northern French chagreiner, chagraigner (“to sadden”), of uncertain origin. Likely an enlargement of Old French greignier, graignier (“to cringe, growl, be sullen, be angry, grieve over”), from Old French graigne (“sadness, resentment, grief”), from graim (“sorrowful”), related to Old High German gram (“furious, gloomy, grieved”). The initial syllable is obscure. It may represent Old French chat (“cat”) to express the idea of "lamenting or yowling like cats" (compare German Katzenjammer (“distress, frustration, depression, chagrin”, literally “cat-wailing, cat-misery”), katzbalgen (“to cat-fight”)). An alternative theory is that it came from a metaphorical use of French chagrin, (peau de) chagrain (“a type of roughened leather”), with the connection of roughness, though some dictionaries consider this to be a separate word derived from Old French peau de sagrin, from Ottoman Turkish [script needed] (sağrı, “the rump of an animal, skin for tawing”). The alteration of initial s to ch is likely due to influence from chagrin meaning "sorrow".
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cahgrin,cchagrin,chaggrin,chagirn,chagrinn,chagrni,chagrrin,chargin,chgarin,chhagrin,hcagrin
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of chagrin - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "chagrin"?
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Using “chagrin”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-A-G-R-I-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈʃaɡ.ɹɪn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “chain” - see the side-by-side comparison. chagrin vs chain
- 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.