chi
/kaɪ/
"chi" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chi” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #7,660 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #7,660
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The twenty-second letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets.
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 | chi |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kaɪ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #7,660 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chi” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for chi is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kaɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,660 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The twenty-second letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for chi, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "co", "CM", "CT", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin chī, from Ancient Greek χεῖ (kheî). The correct English form is chi, spelled C-H-I.
Definition
- 1The twenty-second letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets.
Etymology
From Latin chī, from Ancient Greek χεῖ (kheî).
This word in other languages
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 “chi”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-I - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kaɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “co” - see the side-by-side comparison. chi vs co
- 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.