crabbed
/kɹæbd/adjective, verb
crabbed is spelled C-R-A-B-B-E-D: 7 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 29 million words in written English, the 163,711th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, crabbed means “Bad-tempered or cantankerous” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in crabbed?
| Letters | 7: C-R-A-B-B-E-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 29 million words; the 163,711th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is crabbed?
Crabbed appears about once in every 29 million words in written English, the 163,711th 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 crabbed?
- /kɹæbd/
Crabbed 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-crabbed.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of crabbed
- more crabbed comparative
- most crabbed superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does crabbed mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Bad-tempered or cantankerous.
- 2
Cramped, bent.
- 3
Crowded together and difficult to read.
- 4
Pointed at an angle to the runway during approach and landing to compensate for a crosswind.
Unlike most aircraft, the B-52's fully-steerable landing gear allows it to land crabbed and stay crabbed throughout rollout without destroying its tires.
- 5
Performed with one's aircraft pointed at an angle to the runway to compensate for a crosswind; performed with nonzero crab.
The Ercoupe can't be cross-controlled, so it has to make a crabbed approach in a crosswind rather than using the sideslip technique.
verb
- 1
simple past and past participle of crab
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does crabbed come from?
From Middle English crabbed; equivalent to crab + -ed.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).