choose
/t͡ʃuːz/
"choose" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“choose” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,296 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #1,296
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 19
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To pick; to make the choice of; to select.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | choose |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /t͡ʃuːz/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,296 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 19 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “choose” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for choose is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /t͡ʃuːz/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,296 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for choose, with forms such as "cchoose", "chhoose", and "chooes". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 19 confusable-pair relationships, "coos", "close", "chose", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English cheosen, chesen, from Old English ċēosan (“to choose, seek out, select, elect, decide, test, accept, settle for, approve”), from Proto-West Germanic *keusan, from Proto-Germanic *keusaną (“to taste, choose”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵé… The correct English form is choose, spelled C-H-O-O-S-E.
Definition
- 1To pick; to make the choice of; to select.
- 2To elect.
- 3To decide to act in a certain way.
- 4To prefer; to wish; to desire.
Etymology
From Middle English cheosen, chesen, from Old English ċēosan (“to choose, seek out, select, elect, decide, test, accept, settle for, approve”), from Proto-West Germanic *keusan, from Proto-Germanic *keusaną (“to taste, choose”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵéwseti, from *ǵews- (“to taste, try”). Cognate with Scots chuise, cheese (“to choose”), North Frisian kese (“to choose”), Saterland Frisian kjoze (“to choose”), West Frisian kieze (“to choose”), Dutch kiezen (“to choose”), French choisir (“to choose”), Low German kesen (“to choose”), German Low German kiesen (“to pick, select”), archaic and partially obsolete German kiesen (“to choose”), Danish kyse (“to frighten (via ‘to charm, allure’ and ‘to enchant’)”), Norwegian kjose (“to choose”), Swedish tjusa (“to charm, allure, enchant”), Icelandic kjósa (“to choose, vote, elect”), Gothic 𐌺𐌹𐌿𐍃𐌰𐌽 (kiusan, “to test”), Latin gustō (“to taste, sample”), Ancient Greek γεύω (geúō, “to feed”), Sanskrit जोषति (jóṣati, “to like, enjoy”), Russian кушать (kúšatʹ, “to have a meal, to eat”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cchoose,chhoose,chooes,choosse,chosoe,cohose,hcoose
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of choose - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “choose”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-O-O-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /t͡ʃuːz/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “coos” - see the side-by-side comparison. choose vs coos
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.