chey
[t͡ʃʰeɪ˨˦˨]
"chey" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chey” is uncommon English (frequency #97,936 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #97,936
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Expression of dismissal following an unmet expectation.
Corpus desk
Index EN-chey · chey · English
chey · rank #97,936 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #97,936
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH choroid
Nearest frequency peer: choroid (+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 “chey”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Chariton
Chariton
2,072 corpus weight
- Chaturthi
Chaturthi
2,069 corpus weight
- chey
chey
2,065 corpus weight
- choroid
choroid
2,062 corpus weight
- Christer
Christer
2,060 corpus weight
- Christlike
Christlike
2,059 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “chey” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| 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) |
Long-tail rank of “chey” in English
Rare enough to double-check
chey is uncommon English at frequency #97,936 among 5,599 “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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how chey appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Chey, I thought it was touchscreen.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "chey", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).