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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

chive.

A perennial plant, Allium schoenoprasum, related to the onion.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/t͡ʃaɪv/
  1. A perennial plant, Allium schoenoprasum, related to the onion.

  2. The leaves of this plant used as a herb.

    attributive · in-plural
    Chive herb. (attributive use)
  3. The spring onion; the green onion; the scallion.

    Trinidad-and-Tobago · dialectal
Where this word comes from

From Middle English chive~cyve, from Old French chive~cive, from Latin cēpa (“onion”).

noun/t͡ʃaɪv/
  1. A piece cut off; sliver.

  2. The filament which supports the anther of a flower; stamen, especially of saffron.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English chive, chyve, variant of chith, chyth, from Old English ċīþ (“shoot, scion, sprout”). Doublet of chit and scion.

noun/t͡ʃaɪv/
  1. A knife.

  2. A file.

  3. A saw.

Where this word comes from

From Romani chive, chiv, chivvomengro (“knife, dagger, blade”).

verb/t͡ʃaɪv/
  1. To stab.

  2. To cut.

Where this word comes from

From Romani chive, chiv, chivvomengro (“knife, dagger, blade”).

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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.