chunk
/t͡ʃʌŋk/noun, verb
chunk is spelled C-H-U-N-K: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.4 times per million words in written English, the 12,216th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, chunk means “A part of something that has been separated; a generally squat, thick, irregular piece of something, e.g. wood or stone” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of chunk is chunks.
How many letters and syllables are in chunk?
| Letters | 5: C-H-U-N-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.4 times per million words; the 12,216th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is chunk?
Chunk appears 4.4 times per million words in written English, the 12,216th 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 chunk?
- /t͡ʃʌŋk/
Chunk has one syllable (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: En-us-chunk.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of chunk
- chunks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- chunking participle, present
- chunked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does chunk mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A part of something that has been separated; a generally squat, thick, irregular piece of something, e.g. wood or stone.
The statue broke into chunks.
- 2
A large or substantial portion of something.
- 3
A sequence of two or more words that occur in language with high frequency but are not idiomatic.
- 4
A discrete segment of a file, stream, etc. (especially one that represents audiovisual media); a block.
- 5
A segment of a comedian's performance.
verb
- 1
To break into large pieces or chunks.
- 2
To break down (language, etc.) into conceptual pieces of manageable size.
- 3
slangTo throw.
- 4
To add wood to a fire or to stoke it.
- 5
To deal a substantial amount of damage to an opponent.
He's chunked right before the next battle so he has to regen HP.
- 6
To remove a chunk from.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Chunk in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | pièce, morceau , bloc, fragment |
| German | Stück, Einzelteil , Chunk |
| Portuguese | pedaço |
| Spanish | trozo, pedazo, socotroco , bloque, fragmento |
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 chunk come from?
Variant of chuck; or alternatively a diminutive of chump (“chunk; block”) + *-k (diminutive suffix) (compare hunk from hump, etc.). Also compare Dutch schonk.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).