chetty
"chetty" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chetty” is uncommon English (frequency #87,134 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #87,134
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A member of one of various South Indian castes of merchants, money-lenders and land-owners.
Corpus desk
Index EN-chetty · chetty · English
chetty · rank #87,134 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #87,134
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH Chemung
Nearest frequency peer: Chemung (-3 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “chetty”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- chaperon
chaperon
12,872 corpus weight
- Chemung
Chemung
12,870 corpus weight
- chetty
chetty
12,867 corpus weight
- chirality
chirality
12,864 corpus weight
- Chitwood
Chitwood
12,863 corpus weight
- chloroquine
chloroquine
12,862 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “chetty” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chetty |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #87,134 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “chetty” in English
Rare enough to double-check
chetty is uncommon English at frequency #87,134 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A member of one of various South Indian castes of merchants, money-lenders and land-owners.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for chetty, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Ultimately from Sanskrit श्रेष्ठ (śreṣṭha) or श्रेष्ठीन् (śreṣṭhīn). The correct English form is chetty, spelled C-H-E-T-T-Y.
Definition
- 1A member of one of various South Indian castes of merchants, money-lenders and land-owners.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how chetty appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A contract is made, usually by the house itself, with the chetties for such a quantity of cotton of such a quality, and the very lowest sum is fixed. The chetty, finding he cannot get a price that would justify the delivery of such cotton as he has contracted for, agrees to it, well knowing that they must take such as he chooses to deliver to them at the…
Far too many Burmese farmers are heavily in debt to the "chetties," the money-lending caste of the Madras coast.
Etymology
Ultimately from Sanskrit श्रेष्ठ (śreṣṭha) or श्रेष्ठीन् (śreṣṭhīn).
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "chetty", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).