chey
[t͡ʃʰeɪ˨˦˨]
"chey" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chey” is uncommon English (frequency #97,936 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #97,936
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Expression of dismissal following an unmet expectation.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chey |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | [t͡ʃʰeɪ˨˦˨] |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #97,936 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chey” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
chey is uncommon English at frequency #97,936 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as aninterjection, transcribed [t͡ʃʰeɪ˨˦˨]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Expression of dismissal following an unmet expectation.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for chey, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Cantonese 唓 /𪠳 (ce²) or Singaporean Hokkien 唓 /𪠳 (chhê, expression of dismissal). The correct English form is chey, spelled C-H-E-Y.
Definition
- 1Expression of dismissal following an unmet expectation.
Etymology
From Cantonese 唓 /𪠳 (ce²) or Singaporean Hokkien 唓 /𪠳 (chhê, expression of dismissal).
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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Using “chey”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-E-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [t͡ʃʰeɪ˨˦˨] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.