click
/klɪk/
"click" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“click” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,594 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,594
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A brief, sharp, not particularly loud, relatively high-pitched sound produced by the impact of something small and hard against something hard, such as by the operation of a switch, a lock, or a la...
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | click |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /klɪk/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,594 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “click” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for click is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /klɪk/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,594 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for click, with forms such as "cclick", "cilck", and "clcik". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "clip", "cock", "clit", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Imitative of the "click" sound; first recorded in the 1500s. Compare Saterland Frisian klikke (“to click”), Middle Dutch clicken (Modern Dutch: klikken (“to click”)), Old High German klecchen (Modern German: klecken, klicken (“to click”)), Danish klikke (“t… The correct English form is click, spelled C-L-I-C-K.
Definition
- 1A brief, sharp, not particularly loud, relatively high-pitched sound produced by the impact of something small and hard against something hard, such as by the operation of a switch, a lock, or a latch.
- 2The act of snapping one's fingers.
- 3An ingressive sound made by coarticulating a velar or uvular closure with another closure.
- 4The sound made by a dolphin.
- 5The act of operating a switch, etc., so that it clicks.
- 6The act of pressing a button on a computer mouse or similar input device, both as a physical act and a reaction in the software.
- 7A single instance of content on the Internet being accessed.
- 8A pawl or similar catch.
- 9A knock or blow.
- 10A limb contortion at the joint, part of vogue dancing.
- 11A click track.
Etymology
Imitative of the "click" sound; first recorded in the 1500s. Compare Saterland Frisian klikke (“to click”), Middle Dutch clicken (Modern Dutch: klikken (“to click”)), Old High German klecchen (Modern German: klecken, klicken (“to click”)), Danish klikke (“to click”), Swedish klicka (“to click”), Norwegian klikke (“to click”), Norwegian klekke (“to hatch”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cclick,cilck,clcik,clicck,clickk,clikc,cllick,lcick
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of click - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “click”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-L-I-C-K - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /klɪk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “clip” - see the side-by-side comparison. click vs clip
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.