crack
/kɹæk/verb, noun, adjective
crack is spelled C-R-A-C-K: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 26 times per million words in written English, the 3,558th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, crack means “To form cracks” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in crack?
| Letters | 5: C-R-A-C-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 26 times per million words; the 3,558th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is crack?
Crack appears 26 times per million words in written English, the 3,558th 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 crack?
- US /kɹæk/
Crack 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-us-crack.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-crack.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with crack
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: craic (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with crack?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as crack from its last stressed vowel (/æk/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of crack
- cracks present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- cracking participle, present
- cracked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does crack mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To form cracks.
It's been so dry, the ground is starting to crack.
- 2
To break apart under force, stress, or pressure.
When I tried to stand on the chair, it cracked.
- 3
To become debilitated by psychological pressure.
Anyone would crack after being hounded like that.
- 4
To break down or yield, especially under interrogation or torture.
When we showed him the pictures of the murder scene, he cracked.
- 5
To make a cracking sound.
The bat cracked with authority and the ball went for six.
- 6
To change rapidly in register.
His voice cracked with emotion.
- 7
To alternate between high and low register in the process of eventually lowering.
His voice finally cracked when he was fourteen.
- 8
To make a sharply humorous comment.
"I would too, with a face like that," she cracked.
noun
- 1
A thin and usually jagged space opened in a previously solid material.
A large crack had formed in the roadway.
- 2
A narrow opening.
We managed to squeeze through a crack in the rock wall.
- 3
slangA sharply humorous comment; a wisecrack.
I didn't appreciate that crack about my hairstyle.
- 4
slangA flaw, weakness, setback, or insecurity.
- 5
slangCrack cocaine, a potent, relatively cheap, addictive variety of cocaine; often a rock, usually smoked through a crack pipe.
crack head
- 6
slangSomething pleasurable (good-tasting or appealing) and habit-forming.
kitty crack
- 7
The sharp sound made when solid material breaks.
The crack of the falling branch could be heard for miles.
- 8
Any sharp sound.
The crack of the bat hitting the ball.
- 9
obsoleteOne who excels; the best, especially a winning racehorse.
adjective
- 1
Highly trained and competent.
Even a crack team of investigators would have trouble solving this case.
- 2
Excellent, first-rate, superior, top-notch.
She's a crack shot with that rifle.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Crack in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | se fissurer , craquer , lâcher , fissure , plaisanterie, vanne |
| German | einreißen , bersten , Ritze, Sprung , knallen , knacken |
| Portuguese | rachar , arrebentar, quebrar , fenda, rachadura, rego |
| Spanish | agrietarse, crakearse, craquearse , cascarse, quebrarse , grieta |
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 crack come from?
From Middle English crakken, craken, from Old English cracian (“to resound, crack”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn (“to crack, crackle, shriek”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- (“to resound, cry hoarsely”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).