Cheeky

How to spell cheeky

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cheeky

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cheeky mean?

1. adjectiveBoldly impudent or disrespectful in a way that is often playful rather than truly offensive.

Cheeky in a sentence

• The toddler gave a cheeky grin after hiding his mother's keys.

• Her cheeky reply to the manager made the whole office laugh.

Where does cheeky come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built on the noun 'cheek', which in Old English was 'ceace' or 'cece', referring to the jaw or the fleshy side of the face. By the early 1800s 'cheek' had taken on a slangy figurative sense meaning 'insolent talk' or 'nerve', the idea being that someone who answers back is being all jaw and mouth. The adjective 'cheeky' grew directly from that, attaching the common '-y' suffix that turns a noun into 'having the quality of', so 'cheeky' literally meant 'full of cheek', that is, impudent. It first appears in print in the early nineteenth century and quickly settled into its modern flavour of bold but often charming impertinence rather than serious rudeness. The spelling is reassuringly regular once you remember it simply joins 'cheek' to '-y', so the doubled 'e' of the root carries straight through.

How the word is built

• cheek (impudent face/mouth)
• -y (adjective suffix: having the quality of)