overwordExplorer
FRENCH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

chien.

dog

5 characters1 syllables approx.Français language

Meaning & usage

noun/ʃjɛ̃/Belgium, France/ʃjẽ/Quebec
  1. dog

    masculine
  2. cock, hammer (of a firearm)

    masculine
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle French chien, from Old French chien, from Latin canis, canem (“dog”). See cognates in regional languages in France : Bourguignon chein, Catalan ca, Corsican cane, cani, Franco-Provençal shin, tsin, Gallo chien, cun, qhun Norman quien, tchian, Occitan can, chin, Picard quien, tchien. See cognates in Romance languages outside France : Aromanian cãni, Galician can, Italian cane, Lombard can, Ladin cian, Portuguese cão, Romanian câine, Sardinian cane, Sicilian cani, Spanish can.

adj/ʃjɛ̃/Belgium, France/ʃjẽ/Quebec
  1. greedy, stingy

    Louisiana
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle French chien, from Old French chien, from Latin canis, canem (“dog”). See cognates in regional languages in France : Bourguignon chein, Catalan ca, Corsican cane, cani, Franco-Provençal shin, tsin, Gallo chien, cun, qhun Norman quien, tchian, Occitan can, chin, Picard quien, tchien. See cognates in Romance languages outside France : Aromanian cãni, Galician can, Italian cane, Lombard can, Ladin cian, Portuguese cão, Romanian câine, Sardinian cane, Sicilian cani, Spanish can.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

chien has 5 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

chien studiochien workshello, chien

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

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.