cheap
/t͡ʃiːp/
"cheap" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cheap” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,989. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,989
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Low or reduced in price.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cheap · cheap · English
cheap · rank #1,989 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,989
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH capacity
Nearest frequency peer: capacity (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “cheap”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- boat
boat
98,015 corpus weight
- bringing
bringing
98,014 corpus weight
- capacity
capacity
98,013 corpus weight
- cheap
cheap
98,012 corpus weight
- climate
climate
98,011 corpus weight
- communities
communities
98,010 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “cheap” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around cheap (IPA /t͡ʃiːp/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #1,989 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cheap appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Where there are many sellers and few purchases, land will be cheap.
One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily…
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cheap", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "cheap". Here's where to go from here.
- "cheap" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "CHP". View pair
- 7 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #1,989 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "C" letter cohort. C–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.