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PlainSpell

tea

/ti/noun, verb, adjective

tea is spelled T-E-A: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 54 times per million words in written English, the 1,899th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, tea means “The tea plant (Camellia sinensis); (countable) a variety of this plant” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of tea is teas.

How many letters and syllables are in tea?

Letters3: T-E-A
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing54 times per million words; the 1,899th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is tea?

Tea appears 54 times per million words in written English, the 1,899th 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 tea?

  • UK /tiː/
  • UK [tʰɪj ~ tʰiː]
  • US /ti/

Tea 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-uk-tea.ogg, En-us-tea.ogg, En-au-tea.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with tea

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

tea vs tee0 B

Sounds like: te, tee, ti (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with tea?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as tea from its last stressed vowel (/i/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: eat, ate, eta.

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 tea

  • teas plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • teaing participle, present
  • teaed participle, past
  • tea'd participle, past
  • tead participle, past
  • more tea comparative
  • most tea superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does tea mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The tea plant (Camellia sinensis); (countable) a variety of this plant.

    Darjeeling tea is grown in India.

  2. 2

    The dried leaves or buds of the tea plant; (countable) a variety of such leaves.

    Go to the supermarket and buy some Darjeeling tea.

  3. 3

    The drink made by infusing these dried leaves or buds in hot water.

    Would you like some tea?

  4. 4

    Specifically sweet tea, an iced tea supersaturated with sugar.

  5. 5

    Any drink which is similar to Camellia sinensis tea in some way

  6. 6

    Any similar drink made by infusing parts of various other plants.

    camomile tea; mint tea

  7. 7

    Meat stock served as a hot drink.

    beef tea

  8. 8

    CommonwealthA cup of any of these drinks, often with milk, sugar, lemon, or tapioca pearls.

    We'd like one tea and one coffee, please.

  9. 9

    A moment, a historical unit of time from China, about the amount of time needed to quickly drink a traditional cup of tea.

verb

  1. 1

    To drink tea.

  2. 2

    To take afternoon tea (a light meal).

  3. 3

    To give tea to.

adjective

  1. 1

    slangGood-looking, sexy.

noun

as TEA
  1. 1

    Initialism of training and employment agency.

  2. 2

    Acronym of triethylaluminium.

  3. 3

    Abbreviation of triethylamine.

  4. 4

    Abbreviation of triethanolamine.

adjective

as TEA
  1. 1

    USAcronym of taxed enough already.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Tea in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchthé (dried leaves of tea plant), tasse de thé (cup of this drink), tisane (drink made from other plants), goûter (light afternoon meal)
GermanTeeblatt, Teeblätter, Tee (dried leaves of tea plant), Tasse Tee (cup of this drink)
Portuguesefolha de chá (dried leaves of tea plant), xícara de chá (cup of this drink), infusão (drink made from other plants), chá da tarde (light afternoon meal), chá (drink made from leaves of tea plant)
Spanishhoja de té (dried leaves of tea plant), taza de té (cup of this drink), té, cha (drink made from leaves of tea plant)

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 tea come from?

First appears c. 1655, in the English translation Álvaro Semedo’s writings. From Dutch thee, from Hokkien 茶 (tê) (Amoy dialect), from Old Chinese, ultimately from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-la (“leaf, tea”). Introduced to English and other Western European languages by the Dutch East India Company, who sourced their tea in Amoy; compare Malay teh along the same trade route. Doublet of chai and cha (and, distantly, the first element of lahpet), from same Proto-Sino-Tibetan root; see discussion of cognates.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after tea