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cinch

/sɪntʃ/noun, verb

cinch is spelled C-I-N-C-H: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 44,209th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, cinch means “A simple saddle girth used in Mexico” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cinch is cinches.

How many letters and syllables are in cinch?

Letters5: C-I-N-C-H
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 2 million words; the 44,209th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 cinch?

Cinch appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 44,209th 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 cinch?

  • US /sɪntʃ/

Cinch 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-I_learned_some_phrases-cinch.wav, En-us-cinch.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of cinch

  • cinches plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • cinching participle, present
  • cinched participle, past

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

What does cinch mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A simple saddle girth used in Mexico.

  2. 2

    informalSomething that is very easy to do.

  3. 3

    informalSomething that is obvious or certain to occur; a sure thing.

  4. 4

    informalA firm hold.

  5. 5

    A variety of auction pitch in which a draw to improve the hand is added, and the five of trumps (called "right Pedro") and the five of the same colour (called "left Pedro", and ranking between the five and the four of trumps) are each worth five. Fifty-one points make a game.

  6. 6

    An RCA connector.

verb

  1. 1

    To bring to certain conclusion.

  2. 2

    To tighten down.

  3. 3

    In the game of cinch, to protect (a trick) by playing a higher trump than the five.

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

Cinch in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
GermanSattelgurt (saddle girth), Kinderspiel, Kleinigkeit (something that is very easy to do), besiegeln, sichern (to tighten down)
Spanishcincha (saddle girth), facil (something that is very easy to do), ceñir (to tighten down)
Frenchjeu d'enfant (something that is very easy to do), serrer (to tighten down)
Portuguesecanja (something that is very easy to do)

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 cinch come from?

Borrowed from Occitan cencha, from Latin cincta, or from Spanish cincha (“a belt or girth”), from Late Latin cingula, from Latin cingulum. Doublet of cingle.

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

What to look up after cinch