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chili

/ˈt͡ʃɪli/noun

chili is spelled C-H-I-L-I: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 5.4 times per million words in written English, the 10,680th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “chile vs chili” about 2,900 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, chili means “The pungent, spicy fresh or dried fruit of any of several cultivated varieties of capsicum peppers, used in cooking” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of chili is chilis or chilies.

How many letters and syllables are in chili?

Letters5: C-H-I-L-I
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing5.4 times per million words; the 10,680th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is chili?

Chili appears 5.4 times per million words in written English, the 10,680th 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).

How do you pronounce chili?

  • US /ˈt͡ʃɪli/
  • UK /ˈt͡ʃɪliː/

Chili has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-JutishMale-chile.wav, En-uk-chilly.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with chili

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

chile vs chili2,900 G
chili vs chilli30 B
chili vs chilly0 B

Sounds like: chile, chilli, chilly (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: chile, chilli, chilly.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with chili?

4 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as chili from its last stressed vowel (/ɪli/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of chili

  • chilis plural
  • chilies plural
  • chile US
  • chilli
  • chilly

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does chili mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    USThe pungent, spicy fresh or dried fruit of any of several cultivated varieties of capsicum peppers, used in cooking.

  2. 2

    USPowdered chili pepper, used as a spice or flavouring in cooking.

  3. 3

    USA spicy stew of chicken or paneer, capsicum and onion, eaten as an appetizer.

  4. 4

    USA dish made with chili peppers and other ingredients, such as beans and beef.

  5. 5

    USCincinnati chili.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Chili in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpiment (spicy fresh or dried fruit of capsicum)
GermanChili (spicy fresh or dried fruit of capsicum)
Portuguesechili, chile (spicy fresh or dried fruit of capsicum)
Spanishchile, ají, pimiento (spicy fresh or dried fruit of capsicum), ají molido, pimienta roja, ají en polvo (spice)

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 chili come from?

Borrowed from Spanish chile, from Classical Nahuatl chīlli.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after chili