crosswise
"crosswise" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“crosswise” is uncommon English (frequency #74,003 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #74,003
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - crossing; lying across
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | crosswise |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #74,003 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “crosswise” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
crosswise is uncommon English at frequency #74,003 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "crossing; lying across".
crosswise doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English croswyse, crose wyse, equivalent to cross + -wise. The correct English form is crosswise, spelled C-R-O-S-S-W-I-S-E.
Definition
- 1crossing; lying across
Etymology
From Middle English croswyse, crose wyse, equivalent to cross + -wise.
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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Using “crosswise”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-R-O-S-S-W-I-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.