charity
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
7 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "charity", 7-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 "charity" 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 "charity" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
charity is aEnglishnoun. It means: An organization, the objective of which is to carry out a charitable purpose. Pronounced /ˈtʃæɹɪti/. It ranks #3,283 in English word frequency. Often confused with chart and chatty.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | charity |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtʃæɹɪti/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #3,283 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for charity is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtʃæɹɪti/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,283 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for charity, with forms such as "cahrity", "ccharity", and "chairty". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 10 confusable-pair relationships, "chart", "chatty", "clarity", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English charite, from Old French charité, cherte, chariteit, cariteit, from Latin cāritās. 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 charity, spelled C-H-A-R-I-T-Y, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1An organization, the objective of which is to carry out a charitable purpose.
- 2The goods or money given to those in need.
- 3Benevolence to others less fortunate than ourselves; the providing of goods or money to those in need.
- 4In general, an attitude of kindness and understanding towards others, now especially suggesting generosity.
- 5Christian love; representing God's love of man, man's love of God, or man's love of his fellow-men.
- 6A free throw.
Etymology
From Middle English charite, from Old French charité, cherte, chariteit, cariteit, from Latin cāritās.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cahrity,ccharity,chairty,charitty,charityy,chariyt,charrity,chartiy,chharity,chraity,hcarity
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for charity
Misspelling Variants of "charity"
Frequency rank: #3,283 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "charity"?
What does "charity" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "charity"?
How do you pronounce "charity"?
What is the origin of the word "charity"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: