chipmunk
chip·munk/ˈt͡ʃɪp.mʌŋk/noun, verb
chipmunk is a noun meaning “Any of certain the small, striped rodents, all found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk, placed in the taxonomic subtribe…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled C-H-I-P-M-U-N-K and has 2 syllables (chip·munk), and it appears about once in every 2 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of chipmunk is chipmunks.
What does chipmunk mean?
noun
- 1
Any of certain the small, striped rodents, all found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk, placed in the taxonomic subtribe Tamiina.
verb
- 1
To speed up (an audio recording, especially a song), to make the voices high-pitched.
- 2
To fill (one's mouth or cheeks) with food.
- 3
To stuff (food) into one's mouth or cheeks, sometimes as part of competitive eating.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce chipmunk?
- /ˈt͡ʃɪp.mʌŋk/
- /ˈt͡ʃɪt.mʌŋk/
- [ˈt̠͡ʃɪʔmʌŋk]
Chipmunk has 2 syllables, split chip·munk in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-chipmunk.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of chipmunk
- chipmunks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- chipmunking participle, present
- chipmunked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is chipmunk?
Chipmunk appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 39,832nd 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).
Chipmunk in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense rodent:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | tamia, suisse |
| German | Streifenhörnchen |
| Portuguese | tâmia |
| Spanish | ardilla listada, tamia, ardilla listeada |
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 chipmunk come from?
1832; alteration (influenced by chipping squirrel) of earlier chitmunk, from older Ojibwe ačitamo˙nˀ (“squirrels”) (modern ajidamoo), literally ‘those who descend headlong’, from ačit- (“headfirst, face-down”) (compare modern ajijibizo (“he falls headfirst”), ajidagoojin (“he hangs upside down”)). The English verb developed due to the high-pitched voices of the American puppet and cartoon chipmunks in the group Alvin and the Chipmunks, who later starred in a popular children's TV show in the 1980s.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).