checks and balances
"checks-and-balances" is a 17-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“checks and balances” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 19
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A system for multiple branches of government wherein each has some control over the actions of each of the others.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | checks and balances |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 19 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “checks and balances” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
checks and balances is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
checks and balances has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is checks and balances, spelled C-H-E-C-K-S- -A-N-D- -B-A-L-A-N-C-E-S.
Definition
- 1A system for multiple branches of government wherein each has some control over the actions of each of the others.
- 2Somebody or something that ensures a system remains safe, honest, etc.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “checks and balances”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-E-C-K-S- -A-N-D- -B-A-L-A-N-C-E-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.