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chubby

chubb·y/ˈt͡ʃʌbi/adjective, noun

chubby is spelled C-H-U-B-B-Y: 6 letters and 2 syllables (chubb·y). It appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, chubby means “Of a person: slightly overweight, somewhat fat, and hence plump, rounded, and soft” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in chubby?

Letters6: C-H-U-B-B-Y
Syllables2: chubb·y
In writing2.7 times per million words; the 16,455th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is chubby?

Chubby appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th 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 chubby?

  • /ˈt͡ʃʌbi/
  • [ˈt͡ʃʰʌ̈bi]
  • /ˈt͡ʃɜbi/

Chubby has 2 syllables, split chubb·y in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-chubby.oga, En-au-chubby.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of chubby

  • chubbier comparative
  • chubbiest superlative
  • chubbies plural

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

What does chubby mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Of a person: slightly overweight, somewhat fat, and hence plump, rounded, and soft.

    Obviously the chubby child was eating too much.

  2. 2

    Of a body part: containing a moderate amount of fat.

    It’s quite normal for babies to have chubby cheeks.

noun

  1. 1

    A chubby, plump person.

  2. 2

    slangAn overweight or obese gay man.

  3. 3

    slangA penile erection, especially when short and with a large circumference; a boner.

  4. 4

    A type of thickly-padded fur jacket.

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

Chubby in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpotelé, dodu (of a person, somewhat fat)
Germanmollig (of a person, somewhat fat), Dickerchen (chubby person)
Portugueserechonchudo, gorducho, roliço (of a person, somewhat fat)
Spanishgordito, rellenito, metido en carnes, entrado en carnes, llenito (of a person, somewhat fat), morcillón (of a body part, containing a moderate amount of…)

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 chubby come from?

Recorded since 1611, from chub (“short, thick fish species used as bait"; used metaphorically since 1558 for "lazy person”), an assibilated form of cub (“a lump, heap, mass”) and cob, from Middle English *cubbe (found only in derivative cubbel (“a block to which an animal is tethered”)), from Old Norse kubbr, kumbr (“block, stump, log”) and/or Old Norse kumben (“stumpy”), equivalent to chub + -y. Cognate with dialectal Swedish kubbug (“fat, plump, chubby”). More at chub.

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

What to look up after chubby