chikungunya
/t͡ʃɪkʊŋˈɡʊnjə/
"chikungunya" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chikungunya” is uncommon English (frequency #75,721 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #75,721
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A viral fever caused by the Chikungunya virus, an alphavirus spread by mosquito bites.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chikungunya |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /t͡ʃɪkʊŋˈɡʊnjə/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #75,721 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chikungunya” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
chikungunya is uncommon English at frequency #75,721 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /t͡ʃɪkʊŋˈɡʊnjə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A viral fever caused by the Chikungunya virus, an alphavirus spread by mosquito bites.".
chikungunya has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Makonde chikungunya (“that which bends up”), apparently referring to the arthritic effects of the disease. See -kunja, a suffix related to bending. Compare Swahili kunja (“to bend, to fold”). The correct English form is chikungunya, spelled C-H-I-K-U-N-G-U-N-Y-A.
Definition
- 1A viral fever caused by the Chikungunya virus, an alphavirus spread by mosquito bites.
Etymology
Borrowed from Makonde chikungunya (“that which bends up”), apparently referring to the arthritic effects of the disease. See -kunja, a suffix related to bending. Compare Swahili kunja (“to bend, to fold”).
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 “chikungunya”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-I-K-U-N-G-U-N-Y-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /t͡ʃɪkʊŋˈɡʊnjə/ (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.