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PlainSpell

crisscross

/ˈkɹɪsˌkɹɒs/verb, noun, adjective, adverb

crisscross is a verb meaning “To move back and forth over or through” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled C-R-I-S-S-C-R-O-S-S and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 5 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does crisscross mean?

verb

  1. 1

    To move back and forth over or through.

  2. 2

    To mark with crossed lines.

noun

  1. 1

    A pattern of crossed lines.

  2. 2

    A mark or cross, such as the signature of a person who is unable to write.

  3. 3

    A kind of crossword puzzle having no clues or definitions, but only a list of words that must be fitted into the grid.

  4. 4

    obsoleteA child's game played on paper or on a slate, consisting of lines arranged in the form of a cross.

adjective

  1. 1

    Marked with crossed lines; crisscrossed.

adverb

  1. 1

    Crossing one another.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce crisscross?

  • /ˈkɹɪsˌkɹɒs/

Crisscross has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-crisscross.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of crisscross

  • crisscrosses present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • crisscrossing participle, present
  • crisscrossed participle, past
  • criss-cross

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is crisscross?

Crisscross appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 68,248th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Crisscross in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsillonner (move back and forth)
Germankreuz und quer (crossing one another)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does crisscross come from?

From Middle English crist-crosse, crists-crosse (“Christ's cross”). By surface analysis, an apophonic reduplication of cross.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).