change
/t͡ʃeɪ̯nd͡ʒ/
"change" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“change” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #259 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #259
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To become something different.
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 | change |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /t͡ʃeɪ̯nd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #259 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “change” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for change is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /t͡ʃeɪ̯nd͡ʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #259 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for change, with forms such as "cahnge", "cchange", and "chagne". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "chase", "crane", "chant", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English changen, chaungen, from Old French changier, from Late Latin cambiāre, from Latin cambīre (“to exchange, barter”), derived from the noun cambium (“change”) (whence was loaned the English doublet cambium), from Gaulish cambion, earlier *k… The correct English form is change, spelled C-H-A-N-G-E.
Definition
- 1To become something different.
- 2To make something into something else.
- 3To replace.
- 4To replace one's clothing.
- 5To replace the clothing of (the one wearing it), especially to put a clean diaper on (someone).
- 6To transfer to another vehicle (train, bus, etc.)
- 7To exchange.
- 8To change hand while riding (a horse).
Etymology
From Middle English changen, chaungen, from Old French changier, from Late Latin cambiāre, from Latin cambīre (“to exchange, barter”), derived from the noun cambium (“change”) (whence was loaned the English doublet cambium), from Gaulish cambion, earlier *kambyom (“change”), related to Proto-Celtic *kambos (“twisted, crooked”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱh₂(e)mbos, *(s)kh₂(e)mbos (“crooked”). More at skimp, scam; see also Proto-Indo-European *kh₂em-. Cognate with Italian cambiare, Portuguese cambiar, Romanian schimba, Sicilian canciari, Spanish cambiar. Used in English since the 13th century. Displaced Middle English wenden, from wendan (“to turn, change”) (whence wend). The noun is from Middle English change, chaunge, from Old French change, from the verb changier. See also exchange. Possibly related from the same source is Old English gombe.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cahnge,cchange,chagne,chaneg,changge,channge,chhange,chnage,hcange
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of change - 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
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Using “change”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-A-N-G-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /t͡ʃeɪ̯nd͡ʒ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “chase” - see the side-by-side comparison. change vs chase
- 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.