crikey
/ˈkɹaɪki/
"crikey" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“crikey” is uncommon English (frequency #54,716 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,716
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An exclamation of astonishment.
Corpus desk
Index EN-crikey · crikey · English
crikey · rank #54,716 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #54,716
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH Craddock
Nearest frequency peer: Craddock (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “crikey”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- courtside
courtside
45,288 corpus weight
- CPAC
CPAC
45,287 corpus weight
- Craddock
Craddock
45,286 corpus weight
- crikey
crikey
45,285 corpus weight
- crustal
crustal
45,282 corpus weight
- crypts
crypts
45,281 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “crikey” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | crikey |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | /ˈkɹaɪki/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #54,716 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “crikey” in English
Rare enough to double-check
crikey is uncommon English at frequency #54,716 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as aninterjection, transcribed /ˈkɹaɪki/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An exclamation of astonishment.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for crikey, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Euphemistic substitute for Christ, perhaps a corruption of Christ King. Compare criminy, cripes, crivvens. Attested from the 19th century. The correct English form is crikey, spelled C-R-I-K-E-Y.
Definition
- 1An exclamation of astonishment.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how crikey appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Crikey, mate, that ain't a knife, this is a knife!
The label is based on the word “crikey” the famous catchphrase of Steve Irwin, and “core,” meaning the essential part of anything, according to dictionary.com.
Etymology
Euphemistic substitute for Christ, perhaps a corruption of Christ King. Compare criminy, cripes, crivvens. Attested from the 19th century.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "crikey", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).