chicken pox
/ˈt͡ʃɪ.k(ə)nˌpɑks/
"chicken-pox" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chicken pox” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The blisters formed by the varicella zoster virus (VZV).
Corpus desk
Index EN-chicken-pox · chicken pox · English
chicken pox · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-3 3 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chicken pox |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈt͡ʃɪ.k(ə)nˌpɑks/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “chicken pox” in English
Rare enough to double-check
chicken pox is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈt͡ʃɪ.k(ə)nˌpɑks/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for chicken pox in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From chicken + pox, under the influence of earlier hen-pox and swinepox, which formed larger blisters. The correct English form is chicken pox, spelled C-H-I-C-K-E-N- -P-O-X.
Definition
- 1The blisters formed by the varicella zoster virus (VZV).
- 2The highly contagious airborne disease caused by initial infection with varicella zoster virus, typically causing a skin rash that forms small itchy blisters.
- 3Any disease causing similar symptoms.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how chicken pox appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Chickenpox parties, at which children gather so they can all be infected by a child who has the pox, are often held by parents who distrust chickenpox vaccine or want their children to have the stronger immunity that surviving a full-blown infection affords.
Etymology
From chicken + pox, under the influence of earlier hen-pox and swinepox, which formed larger blisters.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.