cheap
/t͡ʃiːp/
"cheap" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cheap” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,989 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #1,989
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Low or reduced in price.
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 | cheap |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /t͡ʃiːp/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,989 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cheap” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cheap is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /t͡ʃiːp/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,989 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for cheap, with forms such as "ccheap", "cehap", and "chaep". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CHP", "crap", "chip", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: As a noun, from Middle English chep, from Old English cēap (“trade, market, value”), from Proto-West Germanic *kaup. As a verb, from Middle English chepen, from Old English ċēapian (“to buy, bargain, trade”), from Proto-West Germanic *kaupōn, from Proto-Ger… The correct English form is cheap, spelled C-H-E-A-P.
Definition
- 1Low or reduced in price.
- 2Of poor quality.
- 3Of little worth.
- 4Underhanded or unfair.
- 5Stingy; mean; excessively frugal.
- 6Trading at a price level which is low relative to historical trends, a similar asset, or (for derivatives) a theoretical value.
- 7Taking little of system time or resources.
Etymology
As a noun, from Middle English chep, from Old English cēap (“trade, market, value”), from Proto-West Germanic *kaup. As a verb, from Middle English chepen, from Old English ċēapian (“to buy, bargain, trade”), from Proto-West Germanic *kaupōn, from Proto-Germanic *kaupōną, a verbal derivative of *kaupô (“trader”), from Latin caupō. The adjective originated as a shortening of Middle and Early Modern English good cheap, literally “good purchase” (as in “that was good cheap”, i.e. “that was [a] good purchase”). Compare Dutch goedkoop, French bon marché. Cognates Cognate with Scots chepe (“to sell”), chape (“sale price”), North Frisian keap (“purchase”), West Frisian keap (“purchase, buy, acquisition”), Dutch koop (“buy, purchase, deal”), kopen (“to buy, purchase, shop”), Low German kopen (“to buy”), German Kauf (“trade, traffic, bargain, purchase, buy”), kaufen (“to buy”), Swedish köp (“bargain, purchase”), köpa (“to buy, purchase”), Norwegian Nynorsk kjøpa (“to buy, purchase”), Icelandic kaup (“purchase, bargain”), kaupa (“to purchase”); also borrowed as Finnish kauppa (“shop, trade”), Russian купить (kupitʹ, “to purchase”), Old Church Slavonic коупити (kupiti, “to purchase”), Bulgarian ку́пя (kúpja, “to purchase”), Serbo-Croatian купити (“to purchase”), Czech koupit (“to purchase”), Polish kupić (“to purchase”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccheap,cehap,chaep,cheapp,chepa,chheap,hceap
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cheap - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “cheap”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-E-A-P - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /t͡ʃiːp/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “CHP” - see the side-by-side comparison. cheap vs CHP
- 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.