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PlainSpell

freak

/fɹik/noun, verb, adjective

freak is spelled F-R-E-A-K: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, freak means “Someone or something that is markedly unusual or unpredictable” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of freak is freaks.

How many letters and syllables are in freak?

Letters5: F-R-E-A-K
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing12 times per million words; the 6,230th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is freak?

Freak appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce freak?

  • /fɹiːk/
  • UK /fɹiːk/
  • US /fɹik/

Freak has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-freak.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with freak

Sounds like: phreak (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: frick.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with freak?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as freak from its last stressed vowel (/ik/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: faker.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of freak

  • freaks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • freik
  • freke
  • frick
  • freaking participle, present
  • freaked participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does freak mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Someone or something that is markedly unusual or unpredictable.

    The two-headed calf was a freak.

  2. 2

    derogatoryslangA person who is extremely abnormal in appearance, social behavior, sexual orientation, gender identity, or business practices; an oddball, a unique person, originally in a displeasing or alienating way.

  3. 3

    derogatoryslangA hippie.

  4. 4

    derogatoryslangA drug addict.

  5. 5

    A person whose physique has grown far beyond the normal limits of muscular development; often a bodybuilder weighing more than 260 pounds (120 kg).

  6. 6

    An enthusiast, or person who has an obsession with, or extreme knowledge of, something.

    Bob's a real video-game freak. He owns every games console of the last ten years.

  7. 7

    informalA very sexually perverse individual.

    She's a freak in the sheets!

  8. 8

    A wild dance.

    Get your freak on.

  9. 9

    A man, particularly a bold, strong, vigorous man.

  10. 10

    ScotlandUKA fellow; a petulant young man.

  11. 11

    datedA spot or streak of colour.

verb

  1. 1

    slangTo react extremely or irrationally, usually under distress or discomposure.

  2. 2

    slangTo be placed or place someone under the influence of a psychedelic drug, (especially) to experience reality withdrawal, or hallucinations (nightmarish), to behave irrational or unconventional due to drug use.

  3. 3

    Alternative spelling of freck (“to cover (someone or something) with small marks or spots; to dapple, to freckle, to speckle”)

adjective

  1. 1

    Strange, weird, unexpected.

    a freak genius

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Freak in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcaprice (sudden causeless change or turn of the mind), original (nonconformist, especially in appearance, sexual…), monstre, phénomène, anormal (oddball, especially in physiology), déforme (person whose physique has grown far beyond the…)
GermanLaune (sudden causeless change or turn of the mind), Freak, Spinner (nonconformist, especially in appearance, sexual…)
Spanishcapricho, antojo (sudden causeless change or turn of the mind), friki (person who has an obsession or extreme…)
Portugueseaberração (oddball, especially in physiology)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does freak come from?

First attested in 1567. The sense "sudden change of mind, a whim" is of uncertain origin.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after freak