chain reaction
"chain-reaction" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chain reaction” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A chemical reaction where the products of the reaction influence the reactants of a following reaction, leading to positive feedback.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chain reaction |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chain reaction” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
chain reaction is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for chain reaction, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is chain reaction, spelled C-H-A-I-N- -R-E-A-C-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1A chemical reaction where the products of the reaction influence the reactants of a following reaction, leading to positive feedback.
- 2A nuclear reaction in which particles produced by the fission of one atom trigger fissions of other atoms.
- 3A series of events, each one causing or influencing the next.
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 “chain reaction”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-A-I-N- -R-E-A-C-T-I-O-N - 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.