crayon
cray·on/ˈkɹeɪ̯.ɒn/noun, verb
crayon is spelled C-R-A-Y-O-N: 6 letters and 2 syllables (cray·on). It appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 27,150th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, crayon means “A stick of colored chalk or wax used for drawing” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of crayon is crayons.
How many letters and syllables are in crayon?
| Letters | 6: C-R-A-Y-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: cray·on |
| In writing | 1.1 times per million words; the 27,150th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is crayon?
Crayon appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 27,150th 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 crayon?
- UK /ˈkɹeɪ̯.ɒn/
- UK [ˈkɹeɪ̯.ɒ̃]
- UK /ˈkɹeɪ̯.ən/
Crayon has 2 syllables, split cray·on in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-crayon.wav, En-NYC_crayon.ogg, En-US-crayon.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with crayon
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of crayon
- crayons plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- crayoning participle, present
- crayonning participle, present, rare
- crayoned participle, past
- crayonned participle, past, rare
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does crayon mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A stick of colored chalk or wax used for drawing.
- 2
obsoleteA colored pencil, a colouring pencil
- 3
datedA crayon drawing, or a drawing with colored lines.
- 4
datedA pencil of carbon used in producing electric light.
verb
- 1
To draw with a crayon.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Crayon in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense colored chalk or wax:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | pastel, craie de cire |
| German | Wachsmalstift |
| Portuguese | pastel, giz de cera, lápis de cera |
| Spanish | creyón, crayón, crayola, cera, pintura de cera |
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 crayon come from?
Borrowed from French crayon (“pencil”), from craie (“chalk”) + -on (diminutive suffix), from Latin crēta (“chalk, clay”), perhaps from crētus.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).