cut to the chase
"cut-to-the-chase" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cut to the chase” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To get to the point; to get on with it; to state something directly.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cut to the chase |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cut to the chase” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cut to the chase is 16 letters long, classified as a verb. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To get to the point; to get on with it; to state something directly.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for cut to the chase, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From cinema usage: to cut (edit a film) so as to get to the exciting part. Also, preceded by Chaucer c.1400, "The Wife of Bath's Tale"- "And shortly forth this tale for to chace" (To cut a long story short). The correct English form is cut to the chase, spelled C-U-T- -T-O- -T-H-E- -C-H-A-S-E.
Definition
- 1To get to the point; to get on with it; to state something directly.
Etymology
From cinema usage: to cut (edit a film) so as to get to the exciting part. Also, preceded by Chaucer c.1400, "The Wife of Bath's Tale"- "And shortly forth this tale for to chace" (To cut a long story short).
Synonyms
Antonyms
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 “cut to the chase”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-U-T- -T-O- -T-H-E- -C-H-A-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.