chick
/t͡ʃɪk/noun, verb
chick is spelled C-H-I-C-K: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, chick means “A young bird” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of chick is chicks; Wiktionary also lists chicken (obsolete).
How many letters and syllables are in chick?
| Letters | 5: C-H-I-C-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 12 times per million words; the 6,230th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people 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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is chick?
Chick appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th 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 chick?
- /t͡ʃɪk/
Chick 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-chick.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with chick
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: check, chicken, chik.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of chick
- chicks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- chicking participle, present
- chicked participle, past
- check
- chik
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does chick mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A young bird.
Near-synonyms: nestling, fledgling
- 2
A young chicken.
- 3
colloquialAn attractive, young woman; or, more generally, a woman.
This chick's a machine but her friend is way more fun.
- 4
slangA friendly fighter aircraft.
- 5
datedA young child.
- 6
IndiaA screen or blind made of finely slit bamboo and twine, hung in doorways or windows.
- 7
IndiaobsoleteA chickeen, or zecchino.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo sprout, as seed does in the ground; to vegetate.
- 2
To compress the lips and then separate them quickly, resulting in a percussive noise.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Chick in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | oisillon , poussin , gonzesse, nana |
| German | Küken, Vogeljunges, Jungvogel , Biberl, Kücken |
| Portuguese | filhote de ave , pintinho, pintainho, pinto , franguinha, garota |
| Spanish | polluelo, pollo, pichón , pollito , chica, muchacha |
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 chick come from?
From Middle English chicke, chike, variation of chiken (“chicken", also "chick”), from Old English ċicen, ċycen (“chicken”). Sense of "young woman" dates to at least 1860 (compare chit (“young, pert woman”)). More at chicken.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).