chiffchaff
/ˈt͡ʃɪf.t͡ʃæf/noun, interjection
chiffchaff is a noun meaning “A small, common warbler, of species Phylloscopus collybita, with yellowish-green plumage that breeds throughout northern and temperate Europe and Asia” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled C-H-I-F-F-C-H-A-F-F, and it appears about once in every 26 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of chiffchaff is chiffchaffs.
What does chiffchaff mean?
noun
- 1
A small, common warbler, of species Phylloscopus collybita, with yellowish-green plumage that breeds throughout northern and temperate Europe and Asia.
- 2
Any of several other species of the same genus.
interjection
- 1
UKThe song of the chiffchaff.
I thought I heard something singing chiffchaff, chiffchaff. So I had a look and there was a chiffchaff.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce chiffchaff?
- /ˈt͡ʃɪf.t͡ʃæf/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-chiffchaff.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of chiffchaff
- chiffchaffs plural
- chiff-chaff
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is chiffchaff?
Chiffchaff appears about once in every 26 million words in written English, the 155,937th 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).
Chiffchaff in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense Phylloscopus collybita:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | pouillot véloce |
| German | Zilpzalp |
| Portuguese | felosa-comum |
| Spanish | mosquitero |
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 chiffchaff come from?
Echoic of the repetitive "chiff-chaff" song of the European species, Phylloscopus collybita. Audio: (file)
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).