kitchen
/ˈkɪt͡ʃ(ɪ)n/
"kitchen" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kitchen” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,257 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,257
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A room or area for preparing food.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | kitchen |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkɪt͡ʃ(ɪ)n/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #2,257 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “kitchen” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for kitchen is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkɪt͡ʃ(ɪ)n/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,257 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for kitchen, with forms such as "iktchen", "kicthen", and "kitcchen". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "kitten", "Kitchener", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English kichene, kichen, from Old English cyċen, cyċene, from Proto-West Germanic *kukinā, a borrowing from Late Latin cocīna, from earlier coquīna (“kitchen; cuisine”), from coquō (“to cook”), from Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook, become r… The correct English form is kitchen, spelled K-I-T-C-H-E-N.
Definition
- 1A room or area for preparing food.
- 2Cuisine; style of cooking.
- 3The nape of a person's hairline, often referring to its uncombed or "nappy" look.
- 4The percussion section of an orchestra.
- 5A utensil for roasting meat.
- 6A domesticated or uneducated form of a language.
- 7A public gaming room in a casino.
- 8Anything eaten as a relish with bread, potatoes, etc.; a condiment.
- 9The region of a billiard table between the head rail and the head string.
Etymology
From Middle English kichene, kichen, from Old English cyċen, cyċene, from Proto-West Germanic *kukinā, a borrowing from Late Latin cocīna, from earlier coquīna (“kitchen; cuisine”), from coquō (“to cook”), from Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook, become ripe”). In other languages, the cognate term often refers both to the room and the type of cooking. In English, the distinction is generally made via the etymological twins kitchen (“room”) (Latin via Germanic) and cuisine (“type of cooking”) (Latin via French).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: iktchen,kicthen,kitcchen,kitcehn,kitchenn,kitchhen,kitchne,kithcen,kittchen,kkitchen,ktichen
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of kitchen - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "kitchen"?
What does "kitchen" mean?
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Using “kitchen”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is K-I-T-C-H-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkɪt͡ʃ(ɪ)n/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “kitten” - see the side-by-side comparison. kitchen vs kitten
- 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.