crawlies

noun

"crawlies" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“crawlies” is uncommon English (frequency #82,198 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#82,198
frequency rank, English
43,570
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Fear, anxiety.

Key facts for crawlies
PropertyValue
Headwordcrawlies
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Frequency rank#82,198
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “crawlies” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). crawlies lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

crawlies is uncommon English at frequency #82,198 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Fear, anxiety.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for crawlies, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Etymologically, the entry records: From creepy-crawlies. The correct English form is crawlies, spelled C-R-A-W-L-I-E-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Fear, anxiety.

Etymology

From creepy-crawlies.

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

How do you spell "crawlies"?
"crawlies" is spelled C-R-A-W-L-I-E-S.
What does "crawlies" mean?
As a noun, "crawlies" means: Fear, anxiety.
What is the origin of the word "crawlies"?
From creepy-crawlies. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “crawlies”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is C-R-A-W-L-I-E-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words

Other uncommon English words near this rank

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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list