kike
/kaɪk/
"kike" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kike” is uncommon English (frequency #59,491 among 1,236 “K” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #59,491
- frequency rank, English
- 1,236
- “K” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A Jew.
Corpus desk
Index EN-kike · kike · English
kike · rank #59,491 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #59,491
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,236
- PHOTO-FINISH Kharkov
Nearest frequency peer: Kharkov (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “kike”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- ketosis
ketosis
40,514 corpus weight
- Kharkov
Kharkov
40,511 corpus weight
- kike
kike
40,510 corpus weight
- Kiowa
Kiowa
40,509 corpus weight
- Kock
Kock
40,508 corpus weight
- Kwong
Kwong
40,507 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “kike” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | kike |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kaɪk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #59,491 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “kike” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
kike is uncommon English at frequency #59,491 among 1,236 “K” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /kaɪk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for kike, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. 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: The most dominant theory is from Yiddish קײַקל (kaykl, “circle”). In the early 20th century, non-English-speaking Jews that immigrated to the United States would sign papers with a circle as opposed to a more common X, in order to avoid using a symbol remin… The correct English form is kike, spelled K-I-K-E.
Definition
- 1A Jew.
- 2A miser; a contemptible, stingy person, particularly a well-endowed one.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how kike appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
"Now you quit kidding me! What's the nice little name?" "Oh, it ain't so darn nice. I guess it's kind of kike. But my folks ain't kikes. My papa's papa was a nobleman in Poland, and there was a gentleman in here one day, he was kind of a count or something--"
In one tweet, Weisman was referred to as a "kike." Another threatened to have him put "in the oven."
Etymology
The most dominant theory is from Yiddish קײַקל (kaykl, “circle”). In the early 20th century, non-English-speaking Jews that immigrated to the United States would sign papers with a circle as opposed to a more common X, in order to avoid using a symbol reminiscent of a Christian Cross. If so, a doublet of chakra, chakram, charkha, chukker, cycle, cyclus, and wheel. Other theories also exist, in particular a contraction from the documented phrase “Ikey-Kikey”, an American-origin reduplication of ikey, which in turn is a British-English pejorative for Jews after the prevalence of the name Isaac. Alternatively, from Scots keek (“to peek or peep surreptitiously”), used in the New York City clothing industry to refer to the practice of sending spies to work in competing garment factories to copy designs which would then be reproduced and sold at lower cost. Eastern European Jews played a major role in the clothing industry and were perceived to frequently participate in underhanded business tactics. Originally mostly used by older, established German Jews to refer to the Eastern European newcomers, eventually it became generalized to all Jews.
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); 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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "kike", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
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- Usage frequency rank #59,491 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "K" letter cohort. K–Z browse
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PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.