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PlainSpell

click

/klɪk/noun, verb, interjection

click is spelled C-L-I-C-K: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 66 times per million words in written English, the 1,602nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “click vs clique” about 10 times a month (Bing, United States). As a noun, click means “A brief, sharp, not particularly loud, relatively high-pitched sound produced by the impact of something small and hard against something hard, such…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of click is clicks.

How many letters and syllables are in click?

Letters5: C-L-I-C-K
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing66 times per million words; the 1,602nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is click?

Click appears 66 times per million words in written English, the 1,602nd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce click?

  • /klɪk/
  • [kʰl̥ɪk]

Click has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-click.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with click

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

click vs clique10 B

Sounds like: klick (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: clique.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of click

  • clicks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • clicking participle, present
  • clicked participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does click mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    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 latch.

    As I turned the key, the lock gave a click and the door opened.

  2. 2

    UKThe act of snapping one's fingers.

  3. 3

    An ingressive sound made by coarticulating a velar or uvular closure with another closure.

    tsk is a click in English.

  4. 4

    The sound made by a dolphin.

  5. 5

    The act of operating a switch, etc., so that it clicks.

  6. 6

    The act of pressing a button on a computer mouse or similar input device, both as a physical act and a reaction in the software.

  7. 7

    A single instance of content on the Internet being accessed.

  8. 8

    A pawl or similar catch.

  9. 9

    A detent, pawl, or ratchet, such as that which catches the cogs of a ratchet wheel to prevent backward motion.

  10. 10

    UKThe latch of a door.

  11. 11

    A kind of throw.

    inside click; outside click; cross click

  12. 12

    slangAlternative spelling of klick (“kilometer; kilometers per hour”).

verb

  1. 1

    To cause to make a click; to operate (a switch, etc) so that it makes a click.

  2. 2

    To emit a click.

  3. 3

    UKTo snap one's fingers.

  4. 4

    To press and release (a button on a computer mouse).

  5. 5

    To select a software item using, usually, but not always, the pressing of a mouse button.

  6. 6

    To visit (a website).

    Visit a location, call, or click www.example.com.

  7. 7

    To navigate by clicking a mouse button.

    I soon grew bored and clicked away from the site.

  8. 8

    To make sense suddenly.

    Then it clicked–I had been going the wrong way all that time.

  9. 9

    obsoleteTo snatch.

interjection

  1. 1

    The sound of a click.

    Click! The door opened.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Click in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdéclic, clic (sharp sound), cliquer (transitive: operate so as to make click), sur) cliquer (intransitive: click the left button of a mouse)
Portugueseestalido, estalo (sharp sound), estalar (transitive: operate so as to make click), clique (in phonetics), apertar, clicar (transitive: press and release (button on a…)
Spanishchasquido (sharp sound), hacer clic, clicar (transitive: press and release (button on a…), clic, pulsado, aprieto (act of pressing a button on a computer mouse)
Germanklicken (transitive: operate so as to make click), Schnalzlaut, Klick (in phonetics), Mausklick, Klicken (act of pressing a button on a computer mouse), schnalzen (intransitive: emit a click)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does click come from?

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”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after click