chat

\ʃa\

/\ʃa\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“chat” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,433. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,433
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Mammifère carnivore félin de taille moyenne, au museau court et arrondi, domestiqué, apprivoisé ou encore à l’état sauvage.

Corpus desk

Index FR-chat · chat · French

chat · rank #1,433 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,433
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH café

Nearest frequency peer: café (-1 rank slots)

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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « chat »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « chat » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

chat vs Ct
25% similar
chat vs cia
50% similar
chat vs che
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for chat
PropertyValue
Headwordchat
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʃa\
Letters4
Frequency rank#1,433
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « chat »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).chatse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « café » (#1,432), « chiffres » (#1,434), « Bruxelles » (#1,431). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « chat » est au #1,433. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around chat (IPA \ʃa\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,433 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 11 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for chat, with forms such as "caht", "cchat", and "chatt". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Ct", "cia", "che", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is chat, spelled C-H-A-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Mammifère carnivore félin de taille moyenne, au museau court et arrondi, domestiqué, apprivoisé ou encore à l’état sauvage.
  2. 2
    Individu mâle de cet animal.
  3. 3
    Félin.
  4. 4
    Synonyme de poisson-chat commun.
  5. 5
    Synonyme de loup : jeu d’enfants où un des participants appelé chat doit toucher un de ses camarades qui devient le chat à son tour.
  6. 6
    Instrument à branches de fer élastiques et pointues, dont on se sert pour visiter l’âme d’une pièce de canon, afin de découvrir les chambres qui s’y trouvent.
  7. 7
    Vulve ou vagin, chatte.
  8. 8
    Palatine, sorte de fourrure que les femmes portent au cou.
  9. 9
    Meuble représentant l’animal du même nom dans les armoiries. Comme le léopard, il est représenté passant et de face.
  10. 10
    Position de yoga à quatre pattes.
  11. 11
    Défaut, corps étranger, dans un bloc d'ardoise qui le rend impropre à être fendu et utiliser.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how chat appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Des chats que l’absence d’oreilles et de queue, car en Espagne on leur retranche ces superfluités ornementales, rendait semblables à des chimères japonaises, regardaient aussi, mais de plus loin, ces appétissants préparatifs.
  2. Des militants se sont rendus sur place accompagnés par la gendarmerie et les services de la mairie, et ont découvert 18 borders collies et un chat.

Synonyms

chat domestiquegreffierGrippeminaudminetmistigriRaminagrobismatou

This word in other languages

cat(English)gato(Español)Katze(Deutsch)gato(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • caht
  • cchat
  • chatt
  • chhat
  • chta
  • hcat

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of chat - 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.

caht2cchat1chatt1chhat1chta2hcat2
Edit distance from "chat"

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "chat"?
"chat" is spelled C-H-A-T. The IPA pronunciation is \ʃa\.
What does "chat" mean?
As a noun, "chat" means: Mammifère carnivore félin de taille moyenne, au museau court et arrondi, domestiqué, apprivoisé ou encore à l’état sauvage.
What words are commonly confused with "chat"?
"chat" is commonly confused with "Ct", "cia", "che". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "chat"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "chat" is \ʃa\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "chat" come from?
"chat" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "chat", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

café#1,432coin#1,435tuer#1,426mets#1,444

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

jeudi6 variantspont6 variantstirer6 variantsvoire6 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list