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chicken

chick·en/ˈt͡ʃɪkɪn/noun, adjective, verb

chicken is spelled C-H-I-C-K-E-N: 7 letters and 2 syllables (chick·en). It appears 43 times per million words in written English, the 2,339th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, chicken means “A domesticated subspecies of red junglefowl (Gallus gallus domesticus)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of chicken is chickens.

How many letters and syllables are in chicken?

Letters7: C-H-I-C-K-E-N
Syllables2: chick·en
In writing43 times per million words; the 2,339th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 chicken?

Chicken appears 43 times per million words in written English, the 2,339th 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 chicken?

  • US /ˈt͡ʃɪkɪn/
  • US /ˈt͡ʃɪkən/

Chicken has 2 syllables, split chick·en in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-chicken.ogg, En-uk-a_chicken.ogg, En-us-chicken.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with chicken

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

chick vs chicken0 B

Also written: chick.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of chicken

  • chickens plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • more chicken comparative
  • most chicken superlative
  • chickening participle, present
  • chickened participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does chicken mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A domesticated subspecies of red junglefowl (Gallus gallus domesticus).

    backyard chickens

  2. 2

    The meat from this bird eaten as food.

    boneless chicken

  3. 3

    obsoleteThe young of any bird; a chick.

  4. 4

    derogatoryslangA coward.

    (More commonly used as an adjective with this sense; see below.)

  5. 5

    derogatoryslangA young or inexperienced person.

    "This case will make a stir, sir," he remarked. "It beats anything I have seen, and I am no chicken."

  6. 6

    A young, attractive, slim man, usually having little body hair; compare chickenhawk.

  7. 7

    The game of dare.

  8. 8

    A confrontational game in which the participants move toward each other at high speed (usually in automobiles); the player who turns first to avoid colliding into the other is the "chicken" (that is, the loser).

    Don't play chicken with a freight train; you're guaranteed to lose.

adjective

  1. 1

    derogatoryinformalCowardly.

    Why do you refuse to fight? Huh, I guess you're just too chicken.

verb

  1. 1

    To avoid a situation one is afraid of.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate chicken?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of chicken: chix.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Chicken in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpoulet (bird), poule mouillée, poltron (coward)
GermanHuhn, Hähnchen, Hühnchen, Küchlein, Hue, Huen (bird)
Portuguesefrango, galinha (bird), covarde, cobarde, bundão (coward)
Spanishpollo (bird), cobarde (coward), gallina (meat)

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 chicken come from?

From Middle English chiken (also as chike > English chick), from Old English ċicen, ċycen (“chicken”), of uncertain origin. Possibly from Proto-West Germanic *kiukīn (“chicken”), or alternatively from Proto-West Germanic *kukkīn, equivalent to cock + -en.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after chicken