chary
/ˈt͡ʃɛɹi/
"chary" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chary” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Careful, cautious, shy, wary.
Corpus desk
Index EN-chary · chary · English
chary · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chary |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈt͡ʃɛɹi/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “chary” in English
Rare enough to double-check
chary is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈt͡ʃɛɹi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for chary, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English chari, charre, charri, chary, Early Middle English cearig, chariȝ (“concerned with, diligent; sad, sorrowful; of a person: cherished, loved”), from Old English ċeariġ (“careful; pensive; chary, wary; anxious, sad, sorrowful; dire, grievo… The correct English form is chary, spelled C-H-A-R-Y.
Definition
- 1Careful, cautious, shy, wary.
- 2Excessively particular or fussy about details; fastidious.
- 3Not disposed to give freely; not lavish; frugal, sparing.
- 4Cared for, regarded as precious; cherished.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how chary appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The Charieſt maide is prodigall enough, / If ſhe vnmaske hir beautie to the Moone.
[E]ls is he chary and wary to lay himſelfe open to any daunger, if the finall end of his endeauour and toile bee not plauſible in his demurring judgement.
Etymology
From Middle English chari, charre, charri, chary, Early Middle English cearig, chariȝ (“concerned with, diligent; sad, sorrowful; of a person: cherished, loved”), from Old English ċeariġ (“careful; pensive; chary, wary; anxious, sad, sorrowful; dire, grievous”), from Proto-West Germanic *karag (“anxious; sad”), from Proto-Germanic *karō + *-gaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵeh₂r- (“exclamation; voice”) + *-kos (suffix forming adjectives with the meaning ‘pertaining to; typical of’)); analysable as care + -y. The English word is cognate with Danish karrig (“miserly, stingy”), Dutch karig (“austere, scant, sparing”), Norwegian karrig (“barren; meagre; poor”), Old High German charag, karag (“sparing”) (modern German karg (“barren; meagre, poor”)), Old Saxon carag, karag, Swedish karg (“austere; barren; hungry; needy, poor”). See further at care.
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.