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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

chav.

A working-class youth, especially one associated with aggression, poor education, and a perceived "common" taste in clothing and lifestyle.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/t͡ʃæv/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. A working-class youth, especially one associated with aggression, poor education, and a perceived "common" taste in clothing and lifestyle.

    Ireland · UK · derogatory · offensive
Where this word comes from

Origin uncertain; probably of Angloromani origin. Compare Romani chavi (“male child”) or ćhavo, shavo (“female child”), chal (“boy”), chavvy (“mate, friend”), compare Swedish tjej; possibly cognate with Portuguese chavalo, Spanish chaval, German Chabo, Russian чувак (čuvak), Hungarian csávó. See also charva. Derivations from council-housed and violent, Cheltenham average (and similar) are folk-etymological backronyms.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.