cricket
/ˈkɹɪk.ɪt/
"cricket" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cricket” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,682 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #3,682
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 11
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An insect in the order Orthoptera, especially family Gryllidae, that makes a chirping sound by rubbing its wing casings against combs on its hind legs.
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 | cricket |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkɹɪk.ɪt/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #3,682 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cricket” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cricket is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkɹɪk.ɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,682 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for cricket, with forms such as "ccricket", "circket", and "crciket". 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 11 confusable-pair relationships, "crochet", "crocker", "crickets", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English creket, crykett, crykette, from Old French criket (with diminutive -et) from criquer (“to make a cracking sound; creak”), from Middle Dutch kricken (“to creak; crack”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn, from Proto-Germanic *krakōną, rela… The correct English form is cricket, spelled C-R-I-C-K-E-T.
Definition
- 1An insect in the order Orthoptera, especially family Gryllidae, that makes a chirping sound by rubbing its wing casings against combs on its hind legs.
- 2An insect in the order Orthoptera, especially family Gryllidae, that makes a chirping sound by rubbing its wing casings against combs on its hind legs.
- 3A signalling device used by soldiers in hostile territory to identify themselves to a friendly in low visibility conditions.
- 4An aural warning sound consisting of a continuously-repeating chime, designed to be difficult for pilots to ignore.
Etymology
From Middle English creket, crykett, crykette, from Old French criket (with diminutive -et) from criquer (“to make a cracking sound; creak”), from Middle Dutch kricken (“to creak; crack”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn, from Proto-Germanic *krakōną, related to Middle English creken, criken (“to creak”), all ultimately of imitative origin. Compare Dutch kriek (“cricket”), Middle Dutch krikel, criekel, crekel (“cricket”) (with diminituve -el), Middle Low German krikel, krekel (“cricket”), German Kreckel (“cricket”). More at creak.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccricket,circket,crciket,criccket,cricekt,crickett,crickket,crickte,crikcet,crricket,rcicket
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cricket - 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
How do you spell "cricket"?
What does "cricket" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "cricket"?
How do you pronounce "cricket"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “cricket”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-R-I-C-K-E-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkɹɪk.ɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “crochet” - see the side-by-side comparison. cricket vs crochet
- 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.