crawl
/kɹɔːl/
"crawl" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“crawl” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #10,026 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #10,026
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To creep; to move slowly on hands and knees, or by dragging the body along the ground.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | crawl |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /kɹɔːl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #10,026 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “crawl” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for crawl is 5 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kɹɔːl/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,026 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for crawl, with forms such as "carwl", "ccrawl", and "cralw". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "crew", "crow", "cray", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English crawlen, crewlen, creulen, crallen, *cravelen, from Old Norse krafla (compare Danish kravle (“to crawl, creep”), Swedish kravla, kräla (“to creep, crawl”)), from Proto-Germanic *krablōną (compare Saterland Frisian krabbelje, Dutch krabbe… The correct English form is crawl, spelled C-R-A-W-L.
Definition
- 1To creep; to move slowly on hands and knees, or by dragging the body along the ground.
- 2To move forward slowly, with frequent stops.
- 3To act in a servile manner.
- 4Followed by with: see crawl with.
- 5To feel a swarming sensation.
- 6To swim using the crawl stroke.
- 7To move over (an area) on hands and knees.
- 8To move over (an area) slowly, with frequent stops.
- 9To visit files or web sites in order to index them for searching.
Etymology
From Middle English crawlen, crewlen, creulen, crallen, *cravelen, from Old Norse krafla (compare Danish kravle (“to crawl, creep”), Swedish kravla, kräla (“to creep, crawl”)), from Proto-Germanic *krablōną (compare Saterland Frisian krabbelje, Dutch krabbelen, German Low German krabbeln, German krabbeln), frequentative of *krabbōną (“to scratch, scrape”). Compare also Saterland Frisian krauelje (“to crawl, scuttle”), West Frisian kreauwelje (“to crawl”), Dutch krevelen, krieuwelen (“to crawl”), German Low German kribbeln, German kribbeln (“to creep, crawl, tingle”). See also crab, crabble.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: carwl,ccrawl,cralw,crawll,crawwl,crrawl,crwal,rcawl
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of crawl - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “crawl”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-R-A-W-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kɹɔːl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “crew” - see the side-by-side comparison. crawl vs crew
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.