# crook

> English word · Noun · IPA /kɹʊk/ · frequency rank #16,881

## Definitions
1. A bend; turn; curve; curvature; a flexure.
2. A bending of the knee; a genuflection.
3. A bent or curved part; a curving piece or portion (of anything).
4. A lock or curl of hair.
5. A support beam consisting of a post with a cross-beam resting upon it; a bracket or truss consisting of a vertical piece, a horizontal piece, and a strut.
6. A specialized staff with a semi-circular bend (a "hook") at one end used by shepherds to control their herds.
7. A bishop's standard staff of office.
8. An artifice; a trick; a contrivance.
9. A person who steals, lies, cheats or does other dishonest or illegal things; a criminal.
10. A pothook.
11. A small tube, usually curved, applied to a trumpet, horn, etc., to change its pitch or key.

## Etymology
From Middle English croke, crok, from Old English *crōc (“hook, bend, crook”), from Proto-West Germanic *krōk, from Proto-Germanic *krōkaz (“bend, hook”), from Proto-Indo-European *greg- (“tracery, basket, bend”).
Cognate with Dutch kreuk (“a bend, fold, wrinkle”), Middle Low German kroke, krake (“fold, wrinkle”), Danish krog (“crook, hook”), Swedish krok (“crook, hook”), Icelandic krókur (“hook”).
Compare typologically Czech křivák (< křivý < Proto-Slavic *krivъ, whence also *krivьda).

## Easily confused with
- **crop** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/crook-vs-crop)
- **crow** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/crook-vs-crow)
- **cross** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/crook-vs-cross)
- **crowd** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/crook-vs-crowd)
- **crown** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/crook-vs-crown)
- **crops** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/crook-vs-crops)
- **crows** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/crook-vs-crows)
- **crore** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/crook-vs-crore)
- **crooks** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/crook-vs-crooks)
- **crooked** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/crook-vs-crooked)
- **coo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coo-vs-crook)
- **CRO** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cro-vs-crook)
- **cool** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cool-vs-crook)
- **cook** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cook-vs-crook)
- **cock** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cock-vs-crook)
- **cork** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cork-vs-crook)
- **coop** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coop-vs-crook)
- **choo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/choo-vs-crook)
- **coon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coon-vs-crook)
- **croc** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/croc-vs-crook)

## Common misspellings (6)
`ccrook`, `corok`, `croko`, `crookk`, `crrook`, `rcook`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/crook