spring chicken
"spring-chicken" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“spring chicken” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A chicken for eating while it is still young.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | spring chicken |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “spring chicken” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for spring chicken is 14 letters long, classified as a noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for spring chicken in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From spring + chicken. First appears c. 1765 in The Public Advertiser. The correct English form is spring chicken, spelled S-P-R-I-N-G- -C-H-I-C-K-E-N.
Definition
- 1A chicken for eating while it is still young.
- 2A person who is still young.
Etymology
From spring + chicken. First appears c. 1765 in The Public Advertiser.
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 “spring chicken”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-P-R-I-N-G- -C-H-I-C-K-E-N - 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.