chu
/tʃuː/
"chu" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chu” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #14,918 in English word frequency and used as an interjection.
- #14,918
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The sound of a kiss.
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 | chu |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | /tʃuː/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #14,918 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chu” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for chu is 3 letters long, classified as an interjection, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tʃuː/. Corpus data places it at rank #14,918 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The sound of a kiss.".
chu has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "co", "CM", "CT", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the Japanese ちゅっ (chu', onomatopoeia). The correct English form is chu, spelled C-H-U.
Definition
- 1The sound of a kiss.
Etymology
From the Japanese ちゅっ (chu', onomatopoeia).
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 “chu”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /tʃuː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “co” - see the side-by-side comparison. chu vs co
- 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.