chicken liver

noun

"chicken-liver" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“chicken liver” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see chicken, liver.

Corpus desk

Index EN-chicken-liver · chicken liver · English

chicken liver · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "C" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for chicken liver
PropertyValue
Headwordchicken liver
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “chicken liver” in English

chicken liverfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

chicken liver is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for chicken liver, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is chicken liver, spelled C-H-I-C-K-E-N- -L-I-V-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see chicken, liver.
  2. 2
    A coward.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how chicken liver appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. This is Rob's home too, you chicken liver!
  2. The boys were becoming irritable and fistfights broke out. Between shouted threats and name calling — "turkey breath"; "frog face"; "stupid turd"; "just try ... I dare you, chicken liver" — I had come to the conclusion that prison life was not working for the inmates […]

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "chicken liver"?
"chicken liver" is spelled C-H-I-C-K-E-N- -L-I-V-E-R.
What does "chicken liver" mean?
As a noun, "chicken liver" means: Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see chicken, liver.
What language does "chicken liver" come from?
"chicken liver" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list