chicory
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Detailed reference entry for the English word "chicory", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "chicory" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "chicory" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
The verdict
“chicory” is an uncommon English word, ranked #59,953 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #59,953
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
Dominant Wiktionary sense: Either of two plants of the Asteraceae family.
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See how chicory compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chicory |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtʃɪkəɹi/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #59,953 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chicory” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for chicory is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtʃɪkəɹi/. Corpus data places it at rank #59,953 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for chicory in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Late Middle English cicoree, cicory, cicorea, sicory, sycory (“common chicory (Cichorium intybus); heliotrope”), from Old French cicoree (modern French chicorée (“common chicory; endive; coffee substitute made from common chicory”)), or directly from i… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is chicory, spelled C-H-I-C-O-R-Y, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Either of two plants of the Asteraceae family.
- 2Either of two plants of the Asteraceae family.
- 3Either of two plants of the Asteraceae family.
- 4A coffee substitute made from the roasted roots of the common chicory, sometimes used as a cheap adulterant in real coffee.
Etymology
From Late Middle English cicoree, cicory, cicorea, sicory, sycory (“common chicory (Cichorium intybus); heliotrope”), from Old French cicoree (modern French chicorée (“common chicory; endive; coffee substitute made from common chicory”)), or directly from its etymon Medieval Latin cicorea, cichorea, *cichōria, from Latin cichorium, cichoreum (“common chicory; endive”), from Ancient Greek κίχορα (kíkhora), κιχόρεια (kikhóreia), neuter plural of κιχώριον (kikhṓrion, “chicory”). The English word is cognate with Italian cicórea, and is a doublet of succory.
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #59,953 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “chicory”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-I-C-O-R-Y — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtʃɪkəɹi/ (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
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: