scorch
/skɔɹt͡ʃ/noun, verb
scorch is spelled S-C-O-R-C-H: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,267th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, scorch means “A slight or surface burn” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of scorch is scorches.
How many letters and syllables are in scorch?
| Letters | 6: S-C-O-R-C-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 40,267th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is scorch?
Scorch appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,267th 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 scorch?
- UK /skɔːtʃ/
- US /skɔɹt͡ʃ/
Scorch 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: En-us-scorch.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with scorch?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as scorch from its last stressed vowel (/ɔɹtʃ/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of scorch
- scorches plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- scorching participle, present
- scorched participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does scorch mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A slight or surface burn.
- 2
A discolouration caused by heat.
- 3
Brown discoloration on the leaves of plants caused by heat, lack of water or by fungi.
verb
- 1
To burn the surface of something so as to discolour it
- 2
To wither, parch or destroy something by heat or fire, especially to make land or buildings unusable to an enemy
- 3
(To cause) to become scorched or singed
- 4
To move at high speed (so as to leave scorch marks on the ground, physically or figuratively).
- 5
To burn; to destroy by, or as by, fire.
- 6
To attack with bitter sarcasm or virulence.
- 7
colloquialdatedTo ride a bicycle furiously on a public highway.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Scorch in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Portuguese | chamuscada , chamuscar , queimar |
| French | roussir, brûler , incendier |
| German | verbrennen, versengen , rasen |
| Spanish | chamuscar, achicharrar, abrasar, calcinar |
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 scorch come from?
From Middle English scorchen, scorcnen (“to make dry; parch”), perhaps an alteration of earlier *scorpnen, from Old Norse skorpna (“to shrivel up”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).