crayon
/ˈkɹeɪ.ɒn/
"crayon" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“crayon” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #27,103 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #27,103
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A stick of colored chalk or wax used for drawing.
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 | crayon |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkɹeɪ.ɒn/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #27,103 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “crayon” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for crayon is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkɹeɪ.ɒn/. Corpus data places it at rank #27,103 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for crayon, with forms such as "caryon", "ccrayon", and "craoyn". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "Croydon", "cray", "canon", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French crayon (“pencil”), from craie (“chalk”) + -on (“(diminutive)”), from Latin creta (“chalk, clay”), from crētus. The correct English form is crayon, spelled C-R-A-Y-O-N.
Definition
- 1A stick of colored chalk or wax used for drawing.
- 2A colored pencil, a colouring pencil
- 3A crayon drawing, or a drawing with colored lines.
- 4A pencil of carbon used in producing electric light.
Etymology
Borrowed from French crayon (“pencil”), from craie (“chalk”) + -on (“(diminutive)”), from Latin creta (“chalk, clay”), from crētus.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: caryon,ccrayon,craoyn,crayno,crayonn,crayyon,crrayon,cryaon,rcayon
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of crayon - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "crayon"?
What does "crayon" mean?
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Using “crayon”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-R-A-Y-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkɹeɪ.ɒn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Croydon” - see the side-by-side comparison. crayon vs Croydon
- 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.