church

/ˈt͡ʃɜːt͡ʃ/

//ˈt͡ʃɜːt͡ʃ// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"church" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“church” has 10 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #708. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#708
frequency rank, English
5,599
“C” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
7
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A Christian house of worship; a building where Christian religious services take place.

Corpus desk

Index EN-church · church · English

church · rank #708 · 10 variants · 7 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #708
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-MID 7 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,599
  • PHOTO-FINISH certain

Nearest frequency peer: certain (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “church”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “church” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

church vs couch
67% similar
church vs churn
67% similar
church vs clutch
67% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for church
PropertyValue
Headwordchurch
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈt͡ʃɜːt͡ʃ/
Letters6
Frequency rank#708
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs7
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “church”

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).churchlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “certain” (#707), “east” (#709), “brought” (#706). Among 5,599 “C” headwords, “church” is #708. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around church (IPA /ˈt͡ʃɜːt͡ʃ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #708 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 8 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for church, with forms such as "cchurch", "chhurch", and "chruch". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "couch", "churn", "clutch", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: 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”), fro… The correct English form is church, spelled C-H-U-R-C-H.

Definition

  1. 1
    A Christian house of worship; a building where Christian religious services take place.
  2. 2
    Christians collectively seen as a single spiritual community; Christianity; Christendom.
  3. 3
    A local group of people who follow the same Christian religious beliefs, local or general.
  4. 4
    A particular denomination of Christianity.
  5. 5
    Christian worship held at a church; service.
  6. 6
    Organized religion in general or a specific religion considered as a political institution.
  7. 7
    Any religious group or place of worship; a temple.
  8. 8
    Assembly.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how church appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. There is a lovely little church in the valley.
  2. This building used to be a church before being converted into a library.

Etymology

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. Ancient Greek κυριακόν (kuriakón) was used of houses of Christian worship since circa 300 CE, especially in the East, though it was less common in this sense than ἐκκλησία (ekklēsía, “congregation”) or βασιλική (basilikḗ, “royal thing”). An example of the direct Greek-to-Germanic progress of many Christian words, possibly via the Goths; it was probably used by West Germanic people in their pre-Christian period. Cognate with Scots kirk (“church”), West Frisian tsjerke (“church”), Saterland Frisian Säärke (“church”), Dutch kerk (“church”), German Kirche (“church”), Danish kirke (“church”), Swedish kyrka (“church”), Norwegian Bokmål kirke, Norwegian Nynorsk kyrkje (“church”), and Icelandic kirkja (“church”). Also picked up by Slavic, via Old High German chirihha (compare Old Church Slavonic црькꙑ (crĭky), Bulgarian църква (cǎrkva), Russian це́рковь (cérkovʹ)). Romance and Celtic languages use descendants of Latin ecclēsia.

Synonyms

autemchapelkirkcongregationchurch

This word in other languages

iglesia(Español)église(Français)Kirche(Deutsch)igreja(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • cchurch
  • chhurch
  • chruch
  • chucrh
  • churcch
  • churchh
  • churhc
  • churrch
  • cuhrch
  • hcurch

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of church - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

cchurch1chhurch1chruch2chucrh2churcch1churchh1churhc2churrch1
Edit distance from "church"

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

How do you spell "church"?
"church" is spelled C-H-U-R-C-H. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈt͡ʃɜːt͡ʃ/.
What does "church" mean?
As a noun, "church" means: A Christian house of worship; a building where Christian religious services take place.
What words are commonly confused with "church"?
"church" is commonly confused with "couch", "churn", "clutch". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "church"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "church" is /ˈt͡ʃɜːt͡ʃ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "church"?
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, l... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "church", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

longer#713policy#699worked#725design#689

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

certain10 variantsmedical10 variantssociety10 variantsmeeting10 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list