crate
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "crate", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "crate" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "crate" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
crate is aEnglishnoun. It means: A large open box or basket, used especially to transport fragile goods. Pronounced /kɹeɪt/. Often confused with CRT and CTE.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | crate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kɹeɪt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #15,594 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for crate is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kɹeɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #15,594 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for crate, with forms such as "ccrate", "craet", and "cratte". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CRT", "CTE", "cute", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Dutch krat (“crate, large box, basket”), from Middle Dutch cratte (“basketware, mold”), from Old Dutch *kratta, *kratto (“basket”), from Proto-Germanic *kratjô, *krattijô (“basket”), from Proto-Indo-European *gretH- (“plaiting, wicker, basket, cradle”)… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is crate, spelled C-R-A-T-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A large open box or basket, used especially to transport fragile goods.
- 2A vehicle (car, aircraft, spacecraft, etc.) seen as unreliable.
- 3In the Rust programming language, a binary or library.
Etymology
From Dutch krat (“crate, large box, basket”), from Middle Dutch cratte (“basketware, mold”), from Old Dutch *kratta, *kratto (“basket”), from Proto-Germanic *kratjô, *krattijô (“basket”), from Proto-Indo-European *gretH- (“plaiting, wicker, basket, cradle”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to bind, twist, wind”). Cognate with West Frisian kret (“wheelbarrow”), German Krätze (“basket”), Old English cræt, ceart (“cart, wagon, chariot”), Old Norse kartr (“wagon”), modern English cart. Wider cognates include Sanskrit ग्रन्थ (grantha, “a binding”). Alternatively from Latin crātis (“wickerwork”), perhaps from the same PIE root.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccrate,craet,cratte,crrate,crtae,rcate
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for crate
Misspelling Variants of "crate"
Frequency rank: #15,594 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: