crab
/kɹæb/
"crab" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“crab” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #10,185 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #10,185
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
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 | crab |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kɹæb/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #10,185 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “crab” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for crab is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kɹæb/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,185 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for crab, with forms such as "ccrab", "crba", and "crrab". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cry", "Cub", "CSA", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English crabbe, from Old English crabba (“crab; crayfish; cancer”), from Proto-West Germanic *krabbō, from Proto-Germanic *krabbô, from *krabbōną (“to creep, crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *grobʰeh₂yéti (“scratch, claw at”), a metathesised o-… The correct English form is crab, spelled C-R-A-B.
Definition
- 1Any crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
- 2The meat of this crustacean, served as food; crabmeat.
- 3Various other animals that resemble true crabs:
- 4Various other animals that resemble true crabs:
- 5A bad-tempered person.
- 6An infestation of pubic lice (Pthirus pubis).
- 7Ellipsis of crab angle.
- 8A playing card with the rank of three.
- 9A position in rowing where the oar is pushed under the rigger by the force of the water.
- 10A defect in an outwardly normal object that may render it inconvenient and troublesome to use.
- 11An unsold book that is returned to the publisher.
- 12On an insignia, a coat of arms symbol representing a senior rank.
- 13A member of the Crips.
Etymology
From Middle English crabbe, from Old English crabba (“crab; crayfish; cancer”), from Proto-West Germanic *krabbō, from Proto-Germanic *krabbô, from *krabbōną (“to creep, crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *grobʰeh₂yéti (“scratch, claw at”), a metathesised o-grade of *gerbʰ- (“to carve, scratch”). More at carve. Cognates See also Dutch krab, Low German Krabb, Danish krabbe, Swedish krabba. Further cognates with frequentative-infix are Saterland Frisian krabbelje (“to creep, crawl”), Dutch krabbelen (“to scratch”) and German krabbeln (“to crawl”). Possibly related to English creep and Swedish krypa (“to creep, crawl”) etc. Other origins have also been suggested, see Ancient Greek κάραβος (kárabos) (regarding the possibility of a substrate origin) and Persian خرچنگ (regarding possible ideophonic origin); compare also Old Armenian քարբ (kʻarb), German Krebs.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccrab,crba,crrab,rcab
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of crab - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “crab”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-R-A-B - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kɹæb/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cry” - see the side-by-side comparison. crab vs cry
- 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.