creeping
/ˈkɹiːpɪŋ/
"creeping" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“creeping” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #13,894 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #13,894
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - present participle and gerund of creep
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 | creeping |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈkɹiːpɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #13,894 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “creeping” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for creeping is 8 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkɹiːpɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #13,894 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "present participle and gerund of creep".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for creeping, with forms such as "ccreeping", "cereping", and "creeipng". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "cropping", "creating", "cheering", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English crepynge, crepinde, crepende, crepande, from Old English crēopende, from Proto-Germanic *kreupandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *kreupaną (“to creep, crawl”), equivalent to creep + -ing. The correct English form is creeping, spelled C-R-E-E-P-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of creep
Etymology
From Middle English crepynge, crepinde, crepende, crepande, from Old English crēopende, from Proto-Germanic *kreupandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *kreupaną (“to creep, crawl”), equivalent to creep + -ing.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccreeping,cereping,creeipng,creepign,creepingg,creepinng,creepnig,creepping,crepeing,creping,crreeping,rceeping
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of creeping - 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
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Using “creeping”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-R-E-E-P-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkɹiːpɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cropping” - see the side-by-side comparison. creeping vs cropping
- 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.