crutch
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "crutch", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "crutch" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "crutch" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
crutch is aEnglishnoun. It means: A device to assist in motion as a cane, especially one that provides support under the arm to reduce weight on a leg. Pronounced /kɹʌt͡ʃ/. Often confused with catch and couch.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | crutch |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kɹʌt͡ʃ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #32,752 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for crutch is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kɹʌt͡ʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #32,752 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for crutch, with forms such as "ccrutch", "crrutch", and "crtuch". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "catch", "couch", "crush", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English crucche, from Old English cryċċ (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-West Germanic *krukkju, from Proto-Germanic *krukjō (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewg- (“wrinkle, bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, bend”). Co… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is crutch, spelled C-R-U-T-C-H, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A device to assist in motion as a cane, especially one that provides support under the arm to reduce weight on a leg.
- 2Something or someone that supports, often used negatively to indicate that it is not needed and causes an unhealthful dependency; a prop
- 3A crotch; the area of body where the legs fork from the trunk.
- 4A form of pommel for a woman's saddle, consisting of a forked rest to hold the leg of the rider.
- 5A knee, or piece of knee timber.
- 6A forked stanchion or post; a crotch.
- 7An improvised device, usually made from a piece of cardboard, to hold the last end of a joint.
Etymology
From Middle English crucche, from Old English cryċċ (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-West Germanic *krukkju, from Proto-Germanic *krukjō (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewg- (“wrinkle, bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Scots curche, crutch (“crutch, stilts”), Dutch kruk (“crutch”), Low German krukke, Krück (“crutch”), German Krücke (“crutch”), Swedish krycka (“crutch”). Latin crucia, crucca, croccia, crocia (“crutch”), and its descendants are ultimately from the Germanic.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccrutch,crrutch,crtuch,cructh,crutcch,crutchh,cruthc,cruttch,curtch,rcutch
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for crutch
Misspelling Variants of "crutch"
Frequency rank: #32,752 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: