crossroad

noun

"crossroad" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“crossroad” is uncommon English (frequency #54,101 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#54,101
frequency rank, English
5,599
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A crossroads (place where one road crosses another).

Corpus desk

Index EN-crossroad · crossroad · English

crossroad · rank #54,101 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #54,101
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,599
  • PHOTO-FINISH croton

Nearest frequency peer: croton (+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 “crossroad”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “crossroad” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for crossroad
PropertyValue
Headwordcrossroad
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Frequency rank#54,101
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “crossroad” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).crossroadfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “croton” (#54,102), “Daegu” (#54,106), “Crabbe” (#54,095). Among 5,599 “C” headwords, “crossroad” is #54,101. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

crossroad is uncommon English at frequency #54,101 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

crossroad has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Etymologically, the entry records: From cross + road. The correct English form is crossroad, spelled C-R-O-S-S-R-O-A-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    A crossroads (place where one road crosses another).
  2. 2
    A road that crosses another.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how crossroad appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Finally, at a likely looking north-south crossroad, we turned left and found elusive US 14 two miles north.

Etymology

From cross + road.

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 "crossroad"?
"crossroad" is spelled C-R-O-S-S-R-O-A-D.
What does "crossroad" mean?
As a noun, "crossroad" means: A crossroads (place where one road crosses another).
What is the origin of the word "crossroad"?
From cross + road. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "crossroad", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list