cheque

\ʃɛjk\

/\ʃɛjk\/ noun

The verdict

“cheque” is uncommon French (frequency #51,350 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#51,350
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Variante orthographique de cheik.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cheque · cheque · French

cheque · rank #51,350 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #51,350
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH Chennai

Nearest frequency peer: Chennai (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « cheque »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « cheque » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for cheque
PropertyValue
Headwordcheque
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʃɛjk\
Letters6
Frequency rank#51,350
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « cheque » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).chequetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « Chennai » (#51,349), « chipoter » (#51,351), « cheers » (#51,348). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cheque » est au #51,350. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

cheque is uncommon French at frequency #51,350 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ʃɛjk\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Variante orthographique de cheik.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for cheque, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is cheque, spelled C-H-E-Q-U-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Variante orthographique de cheik.

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 "cheque"?
"cheque" is spelled C-H-E-Q-U-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ʃɛjk\.
What does "cheque" mean?
As a noun, "cheque" means: Variante orthographique de cheik.
How do you pronounce "cheque"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cheque" is \ʃɛjk\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cheque" come from?
"cheque" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "cheque", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list