chicory
/ˈtʃɪkəɹi/
"chicory" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chicory” is uncommon English (frequency #59,953 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #59,953
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Either of two plants of the Asteraceae family.
| 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
Rare enough to double-check
chicory is uncommon English at frequency #59,953 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈtʃɪkəɹi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for chicory, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
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… The correct English form is chicory, spelled C-H-I-C-O-R-Y.
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
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 “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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.