Cha
name, noun, particle, pron ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Tea, (sometimes dialect) specifically masala chai. uncountable
"Would you like a cup of cha?"
- 2 Synonym of Korean foot: a traditional unit of length equivalent to about 30.3 cm.
- 3 Initialism of congenital heart anomaly. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable
- 4 Initialism of charisma point. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable
- 1 Pronunciation spelling of you, especially when preceded by a t sound. alt-of, dialectal, nonstandard, pronunciation-spelling
"You mean you can't fly after you've had a few beers? You can drive, can't cha?"
- 1 Used to count out steps, particularly involving the hip-shaking sections of rhythmic Latin dances.
"One–two–cha–cha–cha Three–four–cha–cha–cha"
- 1 Abbreviation of Charlotte: a city in North Carolina, United States. abbreviation, alt-of
- 2 A surname.
- 3 Initialism of Children's Hospital Association. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 4 A diminutive of the female given name Charlotte
Example
More examples"He's playing a cha cha cha rhythm on the drum kit."
Etymology
From Chinese 茶 (chá), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-la, via two routes: in some cases from Hindustani चा (cā) / چا (cā) (a variant of the same root, from Persian چا, which led to chai), from Northern Chinese; in other cases from 茶 (chá) /t͡sʰɑː²¹/, the pronunciation found in Canton (Guangzhou), where the British bought much of their tea in the 19th century. Doublet of tea, which is from the Amoy Min Nan pronunciation tê.
From cha-cha (q.v.).
From the McCune-Reischauer romanization of Korean 자 (ja).
Related phrases
More for "cha"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.