Which to use
“creepy” is an adjective and “crept” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,671
- “creepy” frequency rank
- #23,794
- “crept” frequency rank
- 30465
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | creepy | crept |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Moving by creeping along. | simple past and past participle of creep |
Where the eye mixes creepy and crept
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. creepy runs 6 letters (CCVVCV) against crept's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: creepy vs crept
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: creepy is /ˈkɹiːpi/ while crept is /ˈkɹɛpt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30465, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
creepy is recorded at frequency rank #6,671, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɹiːpi/. crept is at rank #23,794, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkɹɛpt/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 30465, this pair ranks #354,332 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of creepy vs crept
Shared letters: cepr. Private to "creepy": y. Private to "crept": t.
"creepy" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV · "crept" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "creepy" and "crept" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "creepy" or "crept"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "creepy" and "crept" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "creepy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crept" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #354,332 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "creepy" and "crept" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crept vs Croat". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #354,332 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.