che

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Chechen.

Borrowed from Russian че (če).

che (plural ches)

1. The letter Ч, ч.

• Cheka

A modification of ich, iche from Middle English ich (“I”, pronoun). Doublet of utchy.

che

1. (personal, obsolete) I.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear, act 4, scene 6:

     Nay, come not near th' old man; keep out, che vor / ye, or ise try whether your costard or my ballow be / the harder: ch'ill be plain with you.

• ECH, EHC

From Latin quod. Compare Romanian că.

• Audio:

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che

1. alternative form of cã

From Hindi छः (chaḥ).

• IPA^(key): /t͡ɕe/

che (Bengali script চে)

1. six

• korok
• siks / sik

• van Breugel, Seino. 2015. Atong-English dictionary, second edition. Available online: https://www.academia.edu/487044/Atong_English_Dictionary. Stated in Appendix 3.

• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈt͡ʃe]

che

1. superseded spelling of xe

che

1. H-system spelling of ĉe

From Old Galician-Portuguese che (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria); from an inflected form of Latin tū: the accusative te is from Latin tē, the dative ti from tibi, the dative che emerged by metanalysis from the contraction of te and the article.

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃe/

che

1. dative of ti

The personal pronoun can also be used as a "dative of solidarity" or "interest" in colloquial register, meaning that either the interlocutor or the speaker is inserted into the action even when they don't have a direct intervention, so either to gain the interlocutor sympathy or to show personal interest:

1. • c. 1295, R. Lorenzo, editor, La traducción gallega de la Crónica General y de la Crónica de Castilla, Ourense: I. E. O. P. F, page 126:

     Disse entõ o conde a el rey dom Garçia: -Rey, nõ as por que teer nẽhũu destes que comigo som presos, que por mj̃ soo aueras quantos y som, et nõ lles faças nẽhũu mal, ca elles nõ che am y culpa nẽhũa.

     Then the count said to king Don García: «King, you don't have to keep as prisoners none of the ones that are with me, because just by me you'll find out how many they are, and don't yo do them any harm, because they are not to blame [to you] on this»

   • 1596, anonymous author, Diálogo de Alberte e Bieito:

     eche cousa de chorar

     It is [to you] a thing for crying

   Gustóucheme moito ese libro. ― I really liked that book [to you].

   Onte funche por Ourense. ― Yesterday I went [to you] to Ourense.

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “che”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “che”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “che”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “che”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “che”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

From Esperanto ĉe, from French chez.

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃe/, /t͡ʃɛ/

che

1. at, in, to (someone in his or her house, home or place), with (a people, in respect of their customs)

   Partio che me! ― Party at my place!

   Me lojas che mea patro. ― I live with my dad.

   Irez che la mediko! ― Go to the doctor!

From Latin quod.

che

1. that
   • 1877, Antonio Ive, Canti popolari istriani: raccolti a Rovigno, volume 5, Ermanno Loescher, page 68:

     Nu’ iè truvato spada, che me talgia

     I have not found a sword that would cut me

From Latin quid^[1] (but also usurping some roles of Latin quod), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷid, compare *kʷís.

• IPA^(key): /ˈke/^*
• Rhymes: -e
• Hyphenation: ché

che

1. (interrogative) what; which

   Synonyms: cosa, che cosa

   che vuoi? ― what do you want?

2. (relative) who, whom, which, that

   Synonyms: il quale, (prepositional) cui

   Hai capito l'uomo che parlava? ― Did you understand the man who was speaking?

   L'uomo che ha parlato è stato capito ― The man who spoke was understood.

   • 1336–1374, Francesco Petrarca, “I — Voi ch’ascoltate in rime sparse il suono”, in Il Canzoniere, lines 5–8; republished as Daniele Ponchiroli, editor, Turin: publ. Giulio Einaudi, 1964:

     […] del vario stile in ch’io piango e ragiono […] spero trovar pietà, nonché perdono.

     I hope to find not only forgiveness, but also pity for the variegated style in which I cry and reason.

• che can be found in the nominative or accusative case (direct object). It can also be used partitively alongside di.

From Latin quod, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷod.

• IPA^(key): /ke/^* (unstressed)
• Rhymes: -e
• Hyphenation: che

che

1. that
2. than
3. when
4. let, may

   che la sfida abbia inizio! ― let the challenge begin!

   che Dio ti aiuti ― may God help you

che (invariable)

2. some (a remarkable); what (intensifier to begin a sentence)

   che festa! ― what a party!

che

1. misspelling of ché

che

1. The katakana syllable チェ (che) in Hepburn romanization.

che

1. that

• coche

Akin to Italian che, from Latin quid.

che

1. what

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *kh(r)en (“divide, separate”)

che

1. to separate

che

1. nonstandard spelling of chē
2. nonstandard spelling of ché
3. nonstandard spelling of chě
4. nonstandard spelling of chè

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃe/, [ˈt͡ʃe]

che

1. person; people

che

1. alternative form of sche

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *teʔ, originally a copula "you are".

che

1. second-person singular object marker: you sg

• Lorrain, J. Herbert (1940), “che”, in Dictionary of the Lushai language, Calcutta: Asiatic Society

Inherited from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *t͡ʃe (“I, me”). Cognate with Old Tupi xe.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ʃe/, /ɕɛ/

che

1. I, me

che

1. my

   che angirũ — "my friend"

che m

1. this

che

1. that; which

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

che

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan) that

• ca, c' (Sutsilvan)
• tgi (Surmiran)
• cha (Puter, Vallader)

che

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan) who, whom

• tge (Sutsilvan)
• tgi (Surmiran)
• cha (Puter, Vallader)

From Latin quid.

che

1. (Puter, Vallader) what

• tge (Rumantsch Grischun, Sutsilvan, Surmiran)
• tgei (Sursilvan)

From Latin quod.

che

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan) than

• ca (Sutsilvan)
• tgi (Surmiran)
• cu (Puter)
• co (Vallader)

From a contraction of Old Logudorese co e (“as, like”), from Latin quō(modo) et.

• IPA^(key): /ˈke/

che

1. (Nuorese) only used in che a

• Wagner, Max Leopold (1960–1964), “a¹”, in Dizionario etimologico sardo, Heidelberg

• IPA^(key): [t͡ʃʰɛ̀(ʔ)]
• Hyphenation: che

che (stem -che-)

1. Fort Liard form of tse

• Keren Rice (1989), A Grammar of Slave, Berlin, West Germany: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 11

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃe/ [ˈt͡ʃe]
• Rhymes: -e
• Syllabification: che

che f (plural ches)

1. name of the digraph Ch/ch; previously considered a letter

Onomatopoeic, or perhaps borrowed from Venetan ciò, Catalan xe, or Mapudungun che (literally “person”).

che

1. (Rioplatense, Bolivia, Paraguay, Valencia) hey, yo

• → Brazilian Portuguese: tchê

che m or f by sense (plural che)

1. (Argentina, colloquial) dude; bro; man; mate
2. (colloquial, Chile) Argentinian person
3. (Spain, soccer) a person connected with Valencia Club de Fútbol, as a player, fan, coach, etc.

• “che”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Borrowed from Spanish che, the Spanish name of the letter CH / ch.

• (Standard Tagalog)
  • IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃe/ [ˈt͡ʃɛ]
    • IPA^(key): (no palatal assimilation) /ˈtse/ [ˈt͡sɛ]
  • IPA^(key): /ˈse/ [ˈsɛ]
• Rhymes: -e
• Syllabification: che

che (Baybayin spelling ᜆ᜔ᜐᜒ) (historical)

1. the name of the Latin script letter CH/ch, in the Abecedario

• tse
• se

che! (Baybayin spelling ᜆ᜔ᜐᜒ) (women's speech, gay slang)

1. alternative spelling of tse

Attested in Phật thuyết đại báo phụ mẫu ân trọng kinh (佛說大報父母恩重經, c. 12th cent.) as 𫑃, and Quốc âm thi tập (國音詩集; c. 15th cent.) as 遮 (MC tsyae) (modern SV: già).

Attested as chĕ in the Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum (1651).

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [t͡ɕɛ˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [t͡ɕɛ˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [cɛ˧˧]

che • (枝, 𨑤, 𩂏, 𫑃)

1. to cover; to take shelter
2. (literally) to hide