check
/t͡ʃɛk/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: 5.31 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An inspection or examination.
Example Sentences
- "I don't know if she will be there, but it's worth a check."
- "checks and balances"
- "The castle moat should hold the enemy in check."
- "a remarkable check to the first progress of Christianity"
- "Norton had made a neat, lawyerly check beside each of the items he and Billy had picked up—half a dozen or so, including the milk and a six-pack of Coke."
- "I was not carrying cash, so I wrote a check for the amount."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tek- Proto-Indo-Iranian *kšáyati Proto-Iranian *xšáyati Old Persian 𐏋 (XŠ) Middle Persian 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠 (mlkʾ) Classical Persian شاه (šāh)bor. Arabic شَاه (šāh)bor. Medieval Latin scaccusder. Old French eschecbor. Middle English chek English check From Middle English chek, chekke, borrowed from Old French eschec, eschek, eschac, from Medieval Latin scaccus, borrowed from Arabic شَاه (šāh, “king or check at chess, shah”), borrowed from Classical Persian شَاه (šāh, “king”), from Middle Persian 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠 (mlkʾ /šāh/), from Old Persian 𐏋 (XŠ /xšāyaθiya/, “king”), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *kšáyati (“he rules, he has power over”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tek- (“to gain power over, gain control over”). Compare Saterland Frisian Schak, Schach, Dutch schaak, German Schach, Danish skak, Swedish schack, Icelandic skák, French échec, Italian scacco. Doublet of chess and shah (“king of Persia or Iran”), from the same source, as well as thig, which derives from the Germanic cognate. All of the English senses developed from the chess sense.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
checks (plural)
checks (present, singular)
checking (participle, present)
checked (participle, past)
checked (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
checked (first person, past)
checkest (archaic, present)
checked (past, second person)
checkedst (archaic, past)
checketh (archaic, present)