chatter
/ˈtʃætə/
"chatter" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chatter” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #17,565 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #17,565
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Talk, especially meaningless or unimportant talk.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chatter |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtʃætə/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #17,565 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chatter” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for chatter is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtʃætə/. Corpus data places it at rank #17,565 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for chatter, with forms such as "cahtter", "cchatter", and "chater". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cutter", "crater", "chatty", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English chateren, from earlier cheteren, chiteren (“to twitter, chatter, jabber”), of imitative origin. Compare Saterland Frisian tjoaterje (“to chatter”), West Frisian tsjotterje (“to chatter”), Dutch schateren, schetteren (“chatter”), Dutch ko… The correct English form is chatter, spelled C-H-A-T-T-E-R.
Definition
- 1Talk, especially meaningless or unimportant talk.
- 2The sound of talking.
- 3The vocalisations of a Eurasian magpie, Pica pica.
- 4The vocalisations of various birds or other animals.
- 5An intermittent noise, as from vibration.
- 6In national security, the degree of communication between suspect groups and individuals, used to gauge the degree of expected terrorist activity.
- 7The situation where a drill or similar tool vibrates and tears the material rather than cutting it cleanly.
Etymology
From Middle English chateren, from earlier cheteren, chiteren (“to twitter, chatter, jabber”), of imitative origin. Compare Saterland Frisian tjoaterje (“to chatter”), West Frisian tsjotterje (“to chatter”), Dutch schateren, schetteren (“chatter”), Dutch koeteren (“jabber”), Middle Low German kidderen (“to chatter”), German Low German queteln (“to chatter”), dialectal German kaudern (“to gobble (like a turkey)”), Danish kvidre (“to twitter, chirp”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cahtter,cchatter,chater,chatetr,chatterr,chattre,chhatter,chtater,hcatter
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of chatter - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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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Using “chatter”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-A-T-T-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtʃætə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cutter” - see the side-by-side comparison. chatter vs cutter
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.