chef
/ʃɛf/noun, verb
chef is spelled C-H-E-F: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,838th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, chef means “The presiding cook in the kitchen of a large household” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of chef is chefs.
How many letters and syllables are in chef?
| Letters | 4: C-H-E-F |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 17 times per million words; the 4,838th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is chef?
Chef appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,838th 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 chef?
- /ʃɛf/
- /t͡ʃɛf/
Chef has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-chef.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of chef
- chefs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- cheffing participle, present
- cheffed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does chef mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The presiding cook in the kitchen of a large household.
The Chef's peace of mind was restor'd, And in due time a banquet was placed on the board.
- 2
The head cook of a restaurant or other establishment.
- 3
Any cook.
My partner is the chef of the household, while I do most of the cleaning.
- 4
slangOne who manufactures illegal drugs; a cook.
- 5
A reliquary in the shape of a head.
verb
- 1
informalTo work as a chef; to prepare and cook food professionally.
- 2
To stab with a knife, to shank.
He got cheffed up proper.
- 3
To impress others.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Chef in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense head cook of an establishment such as a restaurant:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | chef cuisinier, chef |
| German | Chefkoch, Chefköchin, Küchenchef, Küchenchefin |
| Portuguese | chef |
| Spanish | chef |
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 chef come from?
Unadapted borrowing from French chef (from the positions of chef d'office and chef de cuisine), from Old French chief (“head, leader”) (English chief), from Vulgar Latin capus (“head”) (from which also captain, chieftain), from Latin caput (“head”) (possibly related to English cap (“head covering”)). Doublet of cape, capo, caput, and chief through Latin, and head and Howth through Proto-Indo-European.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).