creep
/kɹiːp/
"creep" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“creep” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,029 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #9,029
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To move slowly with the abdomen close to 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 | creep |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /kɹiːp/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #9,029 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “creep” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for creep is 5 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kɹiːp/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,029 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for creep, with forms such as "ccreep", "cerep", and "creepp". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "crew", "crop", "cried", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English crepen, from Old English crēopan (“to creep, crawl”), from Proto-West Germanic *kreupan, from Proto-Germanic *kreupaną (“to twist, creep”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewbʰ- (“to turn, wind”). Cognates Cognate with West Frisian krûpe (“t… The correct English form is creep, spelled C-R-E-E-P.
Definition
- 1To move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground.
- 2To grow across a surface rather than upwards.
- 3To move slowly and quietly in a particular direction.
- 4To make small gradual changes, usually in a particular direction.
- 5To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to steal in; to insinuate itself or oneself.
- 6To slip, or to become slightly displaced.
- 7To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn.
- 8To have a sensation as of insects creeping on the skin of the body; to crawl.
- 9To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.
- 10To covertly have sex (with a person other than one's primary partner); to cheat with.
Etymology
From Middle English crepen, from Old English crēopan (“to creep, crawl”), from Proto-West Germanic *kreupan, from Proto-Germanic *kreupaną (“to twist, creep”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewbʰ- (“to turn, wind”). Cognates Cognate with West Frisian krûpe (“to creep, crawl”), Central Franconian kruffe (“to creep, crawl”), Dutch kruipen (“to creep, crawl”), Low German krepen, krupen (“to creep, crawl”), Danish krybe (“to creep”), Faroese krúpa (“to creep”), Icelandic krjúpa (“to kneel down, to genuflect, to get down on one's knees”), Norwegian Bokmål krype (“to creep”), Norwegian Nynorsk krjupa, krjupe, krypa, krype (“to creep, crawl”), Swedish krypa (“to creep, crawl”). The noun is derived from the verb. Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *grewbʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *kreupaną Proto-West Germanic *kreupan Old English crēopan Middle English crepen English creep
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccreep,cerep,creepp,crep,crepe,crreep,rceep
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of creep - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “creep”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-R-E-E-P - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kɹiːp/ (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. creep 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.