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chape

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

5 characters

Language

English

word origin

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "chape", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "chape" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "chape" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

chape is aEnglishnoun. It means: The lower metallic cap at the end of a sword's scabbard. Pronounced /t͡ʃeɪp/.

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Key facts for chape
PropertyValue
Headwordchape
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/t͡ʃeɪp/
Letters5
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

chape is not present in the top-100,000 ranked English corpus, typical for technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary.

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for chape is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /t͡ʃeɪp/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for chape in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English chape, from Old French chape (“a churchman's cope, a cover, a chape”), from Latin cappa, itself derived from Latin caput (“the head”). Doublet of cap, cape, and cope. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is chape, spelled C-H-A-P-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    The lower metallic cap at the end of a sword's scabbard.
  2. 2
    Alternative form of chappe (“rainguard”) (piece fitted to a sword's crossguard).
  3. 3
    The piece by which an object is attached to something, such as the frog of a scabbard or the metal loop at the back of a buckle by which it is fastened to a strap.
  4. 4
    The tip of a fox's tail.

Etymology

From Middle English chape, from Old French chape (“a churchman's cope, a cover, a chape”), from Latin cappa, itself derived from Latin caput (“the head”). Doublet of cap, cape, and cope.

This word in other languages

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "chape"?
"chape" is spelled C-H-A-P-E. The IPA pronunciation is /t͡ʃeɪp/.
What does "chape" mean?
As a noun, "chape" means: The lower metallic cap at the end of a sword's scabbard.
How do you pronounce "chape"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "chape" is /t͡ʃeɪp/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "chape"?
From Middle English chape, from Old French chape (“a churchman's cope, a cover, a chape”), from Latin cappa, itself derived from Latin caput (“the head”). Doublet of cap, cape, and cope. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.