crutch
/kɹʌt͡ʃ/
"crutch" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“crutch” has 10 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #32,752. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #32,752
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A device to assist in motion as a cane, especially one that provides support under the arm to reduce weight on a leg.
Corpus desk
Index EN-crutch · crutch · English
crutch · rank #32,752 · 10 variants · 9 confusables
- FREQ-MID #32,752
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-MID 9 pairs
- VAR-MID 10 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH CRS
Nearest frequency peer: CRS (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “crutch”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- craved
craved
67,252 corpus weight
- craves
craves
67,251 corpus weight
- CRS
CRS
67,250 corpus weight
- crutch
crutch
67,249 corpus weight
- cursive
cursive
67,247 corpus weight
- cutout
cutout
67,246 corpus weight
What this shows “crutch” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| 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 seat of misspelling magnet “crutch”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 10 spelling variants around crutch (IPA /kɹʌt͡ʃ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #32,752 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for crutch, with forms such as "ccrutch", "crrutch", and "crtuch". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "catch", "couch", "crush", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
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… The correct English form is crutch, spelled C-R-U-T-C-H.
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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how crutch appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He walked on crutches for a month until the cast was removed from his leg.
I'll lean upon one crutch, and fight with the other.
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
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of crutch - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "crutch", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).