crabs
/kɹæbz/noun, verb
crabs is spelled C-R-A-B-S: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.5 times per million words in written English, the 17,122nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, crabs means “Pubic lice” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in crabs?
| Letters | 5: C-R-A-B-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.5 times per million words; the 17,122nd 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 crabs?
Crabs appears 2.5 times per million words in written English, the 17,122nd 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 crabs?
- /kɹæbz/
Crabs 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-au-crabs.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What does crabs mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
slangPubic lice.
- 2
slangA dice roll of two aces.
- 3
plural of crab
verb
- 1
third-person singular simple present indicative of crab
noun
- 1
plural of Crab
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Crabs in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense slang: pubic lice:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | morpions |
| German | Filzlaus |
| Portuguese | piolho do púbis, piolho-caranguejo, chato |
| Spanish | ladilla |
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.