church
/t͡ʃɝt͡ʃ/noun, verb, interjection
church is spelled C-H-U-R-C-H. The wrong spelling people search most is chuch: about 280 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 125 of all searches for the word. Church is a noun meaning “A Christian house of worship; a building where Christian religious services take place”. The plural of church is churches.
How many letters and syllables are in church?
| Letters | 6: C-H-U-R-C-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 145 times per million words; the 711th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, chuch, about 280 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell church?
Church is spelled C-H-U-R-C-H. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 125 of the searches for church in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is church?
Church appears 145 times per million words in written English, the 711th 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 church?
- UK /t͡ʃɜːt͡ʃ/
- US /t͡ʃɝt͡ʃ/
- /t͡ʃøːt͡ʃ/
Church has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-church.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-church.wav, En-us-church.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with church?
6 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as church from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹtʃ/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of church
- churches plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- chu'ch
- chuuch
- chuhch
- churching participle, present
- churched participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does church mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A Christian house of worship; a building where Christian religious services take place.
There is a lovely little church in the valley.
- 2
Christians collectively seen as a single spiritual community; Christianity; Christendom.
These worshippers make up the Church of Christ.
- 3
A local group of people who follow the same Christian religious beliefs, local or general.
- 4
A particular denomination of Christianity.
The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534.
- 5
Christian worship held at a church; service.
- 6
Organized religion in general or a specific religion considered as a political institution.
Many constitutions enshrine the separation of church and state.
- 7
informalAny religious group or place of worship; a temple.
She goes to a Wiccan church down the road.
- 8
obsoleteAssembly.
verb
- 1
To conduct a religious service for (a woman after childbirth, or a newly married couple).
- 2
To educate someone religiously, as in a church.
interjection
- 1
slangUsed to express strong agreement.
– These burritos are the best! – Church!
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate church?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of church: ch..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Church in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | église , culte, misse |
| German | Kirche, Chilche, Chile, Kìrech , Gottesdienst |
| Portuguese | igreja, templo , culto, missa |
| Spanish | iglesia , servicio religioso, culto, misa |
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 church come from?
From Middle English chirche, from Old English ċiriċe (“church”), from Proto-West Germanic *kirikā, an early borrowing of Ancient Greek κυριακόν (kuriakón), neuter form of κυριακός (kuriakós, “belonging to the lord”), from κύριος (kúrios, “ruler, lord”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewh₁- (“to swell, spread out, be strong, prevail”). Doublet of kirk. Additional etymological information For vowel evolution, see bury.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).