chickadee
/ˈt͡ʃɪk.əˌdi/
"chickadee" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chickadee” is an uncommon English word, ranked #73,057 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #73,057
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A small passerine bird (songbird) of the genus Parus or the family Paridae.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chickadee |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈt͡ʃɪk.əˌdi/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #73,057 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chickadee” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for chickadee is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈt͡ʃɪk.əˌdi/. Corpus data places it at rank #73,057 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
chickadee doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Apparent onomatopoeia from these birds' calls having a distinctive “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” sound, possibly influenced by chick or chicken. The correct English form is chickadee, spelled C-H-I-C-K-A-D-E-E.
Definition
- 1A small passerine bird (songbird) of the genus Parus or the family Paridae.
- 2Affectionate term of address.
Etymology
Apparent onomatopoeia from these birds' calls having a distinctive “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” sound, possibly influenced by chick or chicken.
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 “chickadee”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-I-C-K-A-D-E-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈt͡ʃɪk.əˌdi/ (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
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.