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PlainSpell

cheat

/ˈt͡ʃiːt/verb, noun

cheat is spelled C-H-E-A-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,456th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, cheat means “To violate rules in order to gain, or attempt to gain, advantage from a situation” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in cheat?

Letters5: C-H-E-A-T
Syllables1
In writing11 times per million words; the 6,456th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is cheat?

Cheat appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,456th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce cheat?

  • /ˈt͡ʃiːt/
  • [ˈt͡ʃʰɪi̯t]

Cheat has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-cheat.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-cheat.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with cheat?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as cheat.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: teach, tache, theca.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of cheat

  • cheats present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • cheating participle, present
  • cheated participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does cheat mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To violate rules in order to gain, or attempt to gain, advantage from a situation.

    My brother flunked biology because he cheated on his mid-term.

  2. 2

    To be unfaithful to one's spouse or partner; to commit adultery, or to engage in sexual or romantic conduct with a person other than one's partner in contravention of the rules of society or agreement in the relationship.

    My husband cheated on me with his secretary.

  3. 3

    To avoid a seemingly inevitable thing.

    He cheated death when his car collided with a moving train.

  4. 4

    To deceive; to fool; to trick.

    My ex-wife cheated me out of $40,000.

  5. 5

    informalTo disregard self-imposed restrictions or commitments in favour of resting or indulging oneself.

noun

  1. 1

    An act of deception or fraud; that which is the means of fraud or deception.

  2. 2

    Someone who cheats.

  3. 3

    The weed cheatgrass.

  4. 4

    Synonym of bullshit (“a card game where the goal is to have no cards remaining in a hand, often by telling lies”).

  5. 5

    A hidden means of gaining an unfair advantage in a video game, often by entering a cheat code.

  6. 6

    obsoleteA sort of low-quality bread.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Cheat in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchtricher (violate rules to gain advantage), tromper (being unfaithful to sexual partner), menteur (card game), cheat (unfair advantage in a computer game)
Germanschwindeln, schummeln, überlisten (violate rules to gain advantage), die Ehe brechen, betrügen, fremdgehen (being unfaithful to sexual partner)
Portuguesetrapacear, roubar, batotar (violate rules to gain advantage), trair, chifrar (being unfaithful to sexual partner), enganar (manage to avoid something)
Spanishenfullar, machetear, machetearse, jaranear, trafear (violate rules to gain advantage), trampear (being unfaithful to sexual partner)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does cheat come from?

Verb from Middle English achetan, variant of escheten, from Old French escheat, past participle of escheoir, escheoiter, from Late Latin *excadēre (“fall away, fall out”), from (Latin) ex- + cadere (“fall”). Displaced native Old English beswīcan. Noun from verb and/or Middle English chete, aphetic form of achete, escheat, eschete (“the reversion of property to the state”), from Anglo-Norman eschete and Old French eschet, escheit, escheoit (“that which falls to one”), past participle of escheoir (“to fall”) (modern French échoir), from Late Latin *excadēre (“fall away, fall out”), from (Latin)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after cheat