churl
/tʃɜːl/
"churl" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“churl” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A free peasant (as opposed to a serf) of the lowest rank, below an earl and a thane; a freeman; also (more generally), a person without royal or noble status; a commoner.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | churl |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /tʃɜːl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “churl” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for churl is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tʃɜːl/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No generated misspelling entries exist for churl in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English churl, cherl, cheorl (“person not of the nobility or clergy; bondsman, serf, villein; peasant; (also figuratively) servant, slave; unlearned or unrefined person, boor, ignoramus; chap, fellow, man; husband”) [and other forms], from Old E… The correct English form is churl, spelled C-H-U-R-L.
Definition
- 1A free peasant (as opposed to a serf) of the lowest rank, below an earl and a thane; a freeman; also (more generally), a person without royal or noble status; a commoner.
- 2A bondman or serf.
- 3A rough, surly, ill-bred person; a boor.
- 4A countryman, a peasant, a rustic.
- 5A person who is stingy, especially with money; a selfish miser, a niggard.
- 6A freedman, ranked below a thane but above a thrall.
Etymology
From Middle English churl, cherl, cheorl (“person not of the nobility or clergy; bondsman, serf, villein; peasant; (also figuratively) servant, slave; unlearned or unrefined person, boor, ignoramus; chap, fellow, man; husband”) [and other forms], from Old English ċeorl (“freeman ranking below a þegn but above a thrall; commoner, peasant; countryman, husbandman; man; husband”), from Proto-West Germanic *kerl, from Proto-Germanic *karilaz (“elder; man”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵerh₂- (“to grow old; to mature”). Doublet of carl /carle, ceorl, and karl. Sense 2.1 (“rough, surly, ill-bred person”) is probably an extension of sense 1 (“free peasant of the lowest rank; person without royal or noble status; bondman, serf”) and sense 2.2 (“countryman, peasant, rustic”). Sense 2.3 (“person who is stingy”) was influenced by Nabal, who is described in the King James Version of the Bible as “churlish and evil in his doings”; when Nabal, a rich man, is asked to give provisions to David’s men, he replies, “Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?” (1 Samuel 25:3 and 10–11; spelling modernized). Cognates * Danish karl (“fellow, young man, farmhand”) * Dutch kerel (“churl; fellow, man”) * Low German kerl, kerel, kirl (“churl; fellow, man”) * North Frisian tzierl, tjierl, tsjerl (“churl; fellow, man”) * Old High German charl, charlo (German Kerl (“fellow, man”)) * Old Norse karl (“man”) (Icelandic karl (“man”)) * Polish karzeł (“small man”) * Scots churl (“a churl; a rustic”) * Swedish karl (“fellow, man”) * West Frisian tsjirl (“churl; fellow, man”)
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “churl”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-U-R-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /tʃɜːl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.