chastise
/tʃæˈstaɪz/
"chastise" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chastise” is uncommon English (frequency #51,018 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #51,018
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To punish, especially by corporal punishment.
Corpus desk
Index EN-chastise · chastise · English
chastise · rank #51,018 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #51,018
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH Chiapas
Nearest frequency peer: Chiapas (+1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “chastise”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- carle
carle
48,988 corpus weight
- cavan
cavan
48,987 corpus weight
- chastise
chastise
48,983 corpus weight
- Chiapas
Chiapas
48,982 corpus weight
- chomp
chomp
48,981 corpus weight
- Ciaran
Ciaran
48,980 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “chastise” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chastise |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /tʃæˈstaɪz/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #51,018 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “chastise” in English
Rare enough to double-check
chastise is uncommon English at frequency #51,018 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /tʃæˈstaɪz/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for chastise, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English chastisen, from Old French chastier, from Latin castīgō. See also the doublets chasten and castigate and cf. also chaste. The correct English form is chastise, spelled C-H-A-S-T-I-S-E.
Definition
- 1To punish, especially by corporal punishment.
- 2To castigate; to scold or censure.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how chastise appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
And now whereas my father did lade you with a heauy yoke, I wil adde to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whippes, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
An army was sent to chastise an unoffending people; to subdue an imaginary insurrection.
Etymology
From Middle English chastisen, from Old French chastier, from Latin castīgō. See also the doublets chasten and castigate and cf. also chaste.
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); 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "chastise", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).