Skip to main content
PlainSpell

creek

/ˈkɹiːk/noun

creek is spelled C-R-E-E-K: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 23 times per million words in written English, the 3,814th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “creek vs crick” about 1,900 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, creek means “A small inlet, often saltwater, leading to the sea or to the main channel of a river, especially a river estuary” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of creek is creeks.

How many letters and syllables are in creek?

Letters5: C-R-E-E-K
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing23 times per million words; the 3,814th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 creek?

Creek appears 23 times per million words in written English, the 3,814th 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 creek?

  • /ˈkɹiːk/
  • [kʰɹʷɪi̯k]
  • /ˈkɹɪk/

Creek has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-creek.ogg, EN-AU_ck1_creek.ogg, En-au-creek.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with creek

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

creek vs crick1,900 G
creak vs creek320 G

Sounds like: creak (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: crick.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of creek

  • creeks plural
  • crik

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does creek mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    UKA small inlet, often saltwater, leading to the sea or to the main channel of a river, especially a river estuary.

  2. 2

    UKThe inner part of a port that is used as a dock for small boats.

  3. 3

    AustraliaCanadaUSA stream of water, typically a stream of freshwater smaller than a river; in Australia, also used of river-sized bodies of water.

  4. 4

    Any turn or winding.

noun

as Creek
  1. 1

    One of a Native American tribe from the Southeastern United States, also known as the Muscogee.

adjective

as Creek
  1. 1

    Of or pertaining to the Creek tribe.

    The chieftain was well versed in Creek history.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate creek?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of creek: Ck.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Creek in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcrique (small inlet or bay), ruisseau (stream of water)
GermanBucht (small inlet or bay), Bach (stream of water), Krik, Krik-Indianer (Native American tribesmember)
Portugueseenseada (small inlet or bay), riacho (stream of water)
Spanishcaleta (small inlet or bay), arroyo, riachuelo (stream of water)

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 creek come from?

From Middle English crike, probably from Old Norse kriki, from Proto-Germanic *krikjô, variant of krekô, from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, to wind”); the modern form creek (already late Middle English creke) either reflects open-syllable lengthening of Middle English /i/ or reborrowing from Middle Dutch krēke., Compare typologically English bight, akin to bend, bow. See also Old Dutch creka, crika (“inlet, cove, creek”), Medieval Latin creca, crica, kríkr (“angle, corner, nook, bay”), Old Norse kraki (“pole with a hook, anchor”), and possibly Old Norse krókr (“hook, bend, bight”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after creek