crotchety
/ˈkɹɒtʃ.ə.tɪ/
"crotchety" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“crotchety” is uncommon English (frequency #89,266 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #89,266
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Cranky, disagreeable, or stubborn, especially if prone to odd whims or fancies.
Corpus desk
Index EN-crotchety · crotchety · English
crotchety · rank #89,266 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #89,266
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH Crossland
Nearest frequency peer: Crossland (-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 “crotchety”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- crossbreed
crossbreed
10,738 corpus weight
- Crossland
Crossland
10,736 corpus weight
- crotchety
crotchety
10,735 corpus weight
- cruddy
cruddy
10,734 corpus weight
- cryogenics
cryogenics
10,733 corpus weight
- cubical
cubical
10,732 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “crotchety” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | crotchety |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈkɹɒtʃ.ə.tɪ/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #89,266 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “crotchety” in English
Rare enough to double-check
crotchety is uncommon English at frequency #89,266 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈkɹɒtʃ.ə.tɪ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Cranky, disagreeable, or stubborn, especially if prone to odd whims or fancies.".
crotchety doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From crotchet + -y, using crotchet in the 16th-century sense of a whim or fancy. The correct English form is crotchety, spelled C-R-O-T-C-H-E-T-Y.
Definition
- 1Cranky, disagreeable, or stubborn, especially if prone to odd whims or fancies.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how crotchety appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He wouldnt even let old Wilkie touch it do you remember Gerald but always gathered it himself and made his own julep. He was as crochety about his julep as an old maid, measuring everything by a recipe in his head.
He has a happy home life, two sitcoms on the go and a new book in the offing. So why is the comedian, actor and Observer columnist still so crotchety?
Etymology
From crotchet + -y, using crotchet in the 16th-century sense of a whim or fancy.
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 "crotchety", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).