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PlainSpell

crank

UK /kɹænk/adjective, noun, verb

crank is spelled C-R-A-N-K: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.1 times per million words in written English, the 12,764th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, crank means “Hard; difficult” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in crank?

Letters5: C-R-A-N-K
Syllables1
In writing4.1 times per million words; the 12,764th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is crank?

Crank appears 4.1 times per million words in written English, the 12,764th 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 crank?

  • UK /kɹænk/
  • British /kɹaŋk/
  • /kɾaŋk/

Crank has one syllable.

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

What rhymes with crank?

3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as crank from its last stressed vowel (/ænk/, British pronunciation):

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 crank

  • cranker comparative
  • crankest superlative
  • cranks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • cranking participle, present
  • cranked participle, past

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

What does crank mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Hard; difficult.

  2. 2

    informalStrange; weird; odd.

  3. 3

    Bent; twisted; crooked; distorted; out of repair.

  4. 4

    Sick; unwell.

  5. 5

    Liable to capsize because of poorly stowed cargo or insufficient ballast.

  6. 6

    Full of spirit; brisk; lively; sprightly; overconfident; opinionated.

noun

  1. 1

    An ailment, ache.

  2. 2

    informalAn ill-tempered or nasty person.

    Billy-Bob is a nasty old crank! He chased my cat away.

  3. 3

    A twist or turn of the mind; caprice; whim;

  4. 4

    A fit of temper or passion.

  5. 5

    UKdatedinformalA person who is considered strange or odd by others, and may behave in unconventional ways.

    John is a crank because he talks to himself.

  6. 6

    informalAn amateur in science or other technical subjects who persistently advocates flawed theories.

    That crank next door thinks he’s created cold fusion in his garage.

  7. 7

    archaicslangA baseball fan.

  8. 8

    obsoleteA sick person; an invalid.

  9. 9

    A bent piece of an axle or shaft, or an attached arm perpendicular, or nearly so, to the end of a shaft or wheel, used to impart a rotation to a wheel or other mechanical device; also used to change circular into reciprocating motion, or reciprocating into circular motion.

    I grind my coffee by hand with a coffee grinder with a crank handle.

  10. 10

    Clipping of crankshaft.

  11. 11

    The act of converting power into motion, by turning a crankshaft.

    Yes, a crank was all it needed to start.

  12. 12

    archaicAny bend, turn, or winding, as of a passage.

    So many turning cranks these have, so many crooks.

  13. 13

    USslangSynonym of methamphetamine.

    Danny got abscesses from shooting all that bathtub crank.

  14. 14

    rareA twist or turn in speech; word play consisting in a change of the form or meaning of a word.

  15. 15

    slangThe penis.

verb

  1. 1

    To turn by means of a crank.

    Motorists had to crank their engine by hand.

  2. 2

    To turn a crank.

    He's been cranking all day and yet it refuses to crank.

  3. 3

    To turn.

    He's been cranking all day and yet it refuses to crank.

  4. 4

    To cause to spin via other means, as though turned by a crank.

    I turn the key and crank the engine; yet it doesn't turn over

  5. 5

    To act in a cranky manner; to behave unreasonably and irritably, especially through complaining.

    Quit cranking about your spilt milk!

  6. 6

    To be running at a high level of output or effort.

    By one hour into the shift, the boys were really cranking.

  7. 7

    datedTo run with a winding course; to double; to crook; to wind and turn.

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

Crank in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmanivelle (a bent piece of an axle or shaft, or an arm…), tordu, original (slang: strange person)
GermanKurbel (a bent piece of an axle or shaft, or an arm…), Sonderling, Spinner, wunderlicher Kauz (slang: strange person), Kurbeln (act of turning a crankshaft), Miesepeter (ill-tempered or nasty person)
Portuguesemanivela (a bent piece of an axle or shaft, or an arm…)
Spanishmanivela, cigüeñuela, rabil, biela (a bent piece of an axle or shaft, or an arm…), rotar, girar (act of turning a crankshaft)

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 crank come from?

From Dutch or Low German krank, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *krank, from Proto-Germanic *krangaz, *krankaz (“bent; weak”). Cognate with Scots crank, krank, German krank (“sick”).

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

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