Chef
nounA professional cook, especially the one in charge of a kitchen.
How to spell chef
4 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce chef
What does chef mean?
- nounA professional cook, especially the one in charge of a kitchen.
Chef in a sentence
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The chef prepared a tasting menu for the wedding guests.
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After years of training, she became head chef at a city restaurant.
Where does chef come from?
Language of origin: French
The word comes from the French chef, meaning 'head' or 'chief', which itself descends from the Latin caput, literally 'head'. In French the full phrase was chef de cuisine, the 'head of the kitchen', and English borrowed the shortened form in the early 1800s to name the person in charge of a professional kitchen. The very same Latin caput sits behind a whole family of English words, including 'captain', 'chief', and 'chapter', all of which trace back to the idea of a head or leading part. The spelling trap is purely French: the 'ch' is pronounced like 'sh', not the hard 'ch' of 'church', so writers who spell by sound may reach for 'shef' instead. Holding on to the French 'ch' is the key to getting it right.
How the word is built
- chef (from French chef de cuisine: head of the kitchen; ultimately from Latin caput: head)
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