Skip to main content
PlainSpell

chap

/t͡ʃæp/noun, verb

chap is spelled C-H-A-P: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.1 times per million words in written English, the 12,764th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, chap means “A man, a fellow” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of chap is chaps or chaps..

How many letters and syllables are in chap?

Letters4: C-H-A-P
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing4.1 times per million words; the 12,764th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is chap?

Chap appears 4.1 times per million words in written English, the 12,764th 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 chap?

  • /t͡ʃæp/

Chap has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-chap.ogg, EN-AU_ck1_chap.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with chap

Also written: chop.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of chap

  • chaps plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • chapping participle, present
  • chapped participle, past
  • chaps. plural

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

What does chap mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A man, a fellow.

    Who’s that chap over there?

  2. 2

    UKA customer, a buyer.

  3. 3

    A child.

  4. 4

    A cleft, crack, or chink, as in the surface of the earth, or in the skin.

  5. 5

    obsoleteA division; a breach, as in a party.

  6. 6

    ScotlandA blow; a rap.

  7. 7

    archaicThe jaw.

  8. 8

    One of the jaws or cheeks of a vice, etc.

  9. 9

    Clipping of chapter (“division of a text”).

verb

  1. 1

    Of the skin, to split or flake due to cold weather or dryness.

  2. 2

    To cause to open in slits or chinks; to split; to cause the skin of to crack or become rough.

  3. 3

    ScotlandTo strike, knock.

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

Chap in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbougre, mec, quidam (man or fellow), crevasser (of skin: to cause to split or flake)
GermanKerl, Typ (man or fellow), aufrauen (of skin: to split or flake)
Portuguesecamarada, cara, cabra (man or fellow), rachar (of skin: to split or flake)
Spanishtipo (man or fellow), agrietarse (of skin: to split or flake)

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 chap come from?

Clipping of chapman (“dealer, customer”) in 16th-century English.

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

What to look up after chap