crest
/kɹɛst/
"crest" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“crest” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,027 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #12,027
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The summit of a hill or mountain ridge.
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 | crest |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kɹɛst/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #12,027 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “crest” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for crest is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kɹɛst/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,027 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for crest, with forms such as "ccrest", "cerst", and "cresst". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CRT", "CST", "CRS", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English creste, from Old French creste (modern French crête) and perhaps continuing Old English cræsta (“crest, tuft, plume”); both ultimately from Vulgar Latin *cresta, from Latin crista. Doublet of crista. The informal meaning “design, logo” (… The correct English form is crest, spelled C-R-E-S-T.
Definition
- 1The summit of a hill or mountain ridge.
- 2A tuft, or other natural ornament, growing on an animal's head, for example the comb of a cockerel, the swelling on the head of a snake, the lengthened feathers of the crown or nape of bird, etc.
- 3The plume of feathers, or other decoration, worn on or displayed on a helmet; the distinctive ornament of a helmet.
- 4A bearing worn, not upon the shield, but usually on a helmet above it, sometimes (as for clerics) separately above the shield or separately as a mark for plate, in letterheads, and the like.
- 5The upper curve of a horse's neck.
- 6The ridge or top of a wave.
- 7The helm or head, as typical of a high spirit; pride; courage.
- 8The ornamental finishing which surmounts the ridge of a roof, canopy, etc.
- 9The top line of a slope or embankment.
- 10A ridge along the surface of a bone.
- 11A design or logo, especially one of an institution, sports club, association or high-class family.
- 12Any of several birds in the family Regulidae, including the goldcrests and firecrests.
Etymology
From Middle English creste, from Old French creste (modern French crête) and perhaps continuing Old English cræsta (“crest, tuft, plume”); both ultimately from Vulgar Latin *cresta, from Latin crista. Doublet of crista. The informal meaning “design, logo” (noun sense 11) stems from a misinterpretation of the heraldic noun sense 4, which specifically refers to the object placed on top of the helm.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccrest,cerst,cresst,crestt,crets,crrest,crset,rcest
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of crest - 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 “crest”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-R-E-S-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kɹɛst/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “CRT” - see the side-by-side comparison. crest vs CRT
- 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.