cherry
/ˈt͡ʃɛɹi/
"cherry" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cherry” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,303 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,303
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 18
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A small fruit, usually red, black or yellow, with a smooth hard seed and a short hard stem.
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 | cherry |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈt͡ʃɛɹi/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #5,303 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 18 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cherry” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cherry is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈt͡ʃɛɹi/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,303 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for cherry, with forms such as "ccherry", "cehrry", and "cherryy". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 18 confusable-pair relationships, "curry", "chevy", "chewy", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English chery, cherie, chirie, from Anglo-Norman cherise (mistaken as a plural) and Old English ċiris, ċirse (“cherry”), from Proto-West Germanic *kirsijā, from Vulgar Latin ceresia, derived from Late Latin ceresium, cerasium, from Ancient Greek… The correct English form is cherry, spelled C-H-E-R-R-Y.
Definition
- 1A small fruit, usually red, black or yellow, with a smooth hard seed and a short hard stem.
- 2Prunus subg. Cerasus, trees or shrubs that bear cherries.
- 3The wood of a cherry tree.
- 4Cherry red.
- 5The fruit of the coffee plant, containing the seeds or beans.
- 6Virginity, especially female virginity as embodied by a hymen.
- 7A subtree consisting of a node with exactly two leaves.
- 8A red cricket ball.
- 9A reddish mark left on the bat by the impact of the ball.
- 10A round, red light of the kind that is typically mounted on top of a police car.
- 11The burning tip of a cigarette.
Etymology
From Middle English chery, cherie, chirie, from Anglo-Norman cherise (mistaken as a plural) and Old English ċiris, ċirse (“cherry”), from Proto-West Germanic *kirsijā, from Vulgar Latin ceresia, derived from Late Latin ceresium, cerasium, from Ancient Greek κεράσιον (kerásion, “cherry fruit”), from κερασός (kerasós, “bird cherry”), and ultimately possibly of Anatolian origin (the intervocalic σ suggests a pre-Greek origin for the word). Doublet of cerise, Giresun, and kirsch.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccherry,cehrry,cherryy,chery,cheryr,chherry,chrery,hcerry
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cherry - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "cherry"?
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Using “cherry”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-E-R-R-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈt͡ʃɛɹi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “curry” - see the side-by-side comparison. cherry vs curry
- 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.