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PlainSpell

chest

/t͡ʃɛst/noun, verb

chest is spelled C-H-E-S-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 33 times per million words in written English, the 2,888th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, chest means “A box, now usually a large strong box with a secure convex lid” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of chest is chests.

How many letters and syllables are in chest?

Letters5: C-H-E-S-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing33 times per million words; the 2,888th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 chest?

Chest appears 33 times per million words in written English, the 2,888th 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 chest?

  • /t͡ʃɛst/
  • /t͡ʃɪst/

Chest 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-us-chest.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-chest.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of chest

  • chests plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • chesting participle, present
  • chested participle, past

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

What does chest mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A box, now usually a large strong box with a secure convex lid.

    The clothes are kept in a chest.

  2. 2

    obsoleteA coffin.

  3. 3

    The place in which public money is kept; a treasury.

    You can take the money from the chest.

  4. 4

    A chest of drawers.

  5. 5

    The portion of the human body from the base of the neck to the top of the abdomen; the homologous area in some other animals.

    Holonyms: torso, trunk < body

  6. 6

    The front (anterior) surface of this portion of the torso.

    Holonyms: thorax; torso, trunk

  7. 7

    A female human's breasts.

    He avoided being seen gazing at her chest, although he dearly longed to stare.

  8. 8

    A hit or blow made with one's chest.

    She scored with a chest into the goal.

  9. 9

    Debate; quarrel; strife; enmity.

verb

  1. 1

    To hit with one's chest (front of one's body)

  2. 2

    To deposit in a chest.

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo place in a coffin.

  4. 4

    To handle, deal with.

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

Chest in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcoffre (strong box), commode, chiffonnier (chest of drawers), poitrine (thorax)
GermanTruhe, Koffer (strong box), Kommode (chest of drawers), Brust, Brustkorb (thorax), Kasse (treasury)
Portuguesebaú (strong box), cômoda (chest of drawers), peito, tórax (thorax)
Spanisharca, baúl, cofre (strong box), cómoda (chest of drawers), pecho (thorax), caja (treasury)

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 chest come from?

From Middle English cheste, chiste, from Old English ċest, ċist (“chest, casket; coffin; rush basket; box”), from Proto-West Germanic *kistu (“chest, box”), from Latin cista (“chest, box”), from Ancient Greek κίστη (kístē, “chest, box, basket, hamper”).

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

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