# freak

> English word · Noun · IPA /fɹiːk/ · frequency rank #6,246

## Definitions
1. Someone or something that is markedly unusual or unpredictable.
2. A hippie.
3. A drug addict.
4. A 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.
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. An enthusiast, or person who has an obsession with, or extreme knowledge of, something.
7. A very sexually perverse individual.
8. A wild dance.
9. A sudden change of mind.
10. A streak of colour; variegation.
11. Euphemistic form of fuck (“smallest amount of concern or consideration”).

## Etymology
First appears c. 1567. The sense "sudden change of mind, a whim" is of uncertain origin. Probably from a dialectal word related to Middle English frekynge (“capricious behavior; whims”) and Middle English friken, frikien (“to move briskly or nimbly”), from Old English frician (“to leap, dance”), or Middle English frek (“insolent, daring”), from Old English frec (“desirous, greedy, eager, bold, daring”), from Proto-West Germanic *frek, from Proto-Germanic *frekaz, *frakaz (“hard, efficient, greedy, bold, audacious”) (in which case, it would be related to the noun under Etymology 2). Compare Old High German freh (“eager”), Old English frēcne (“dangerous”).
For the meaning development compare Russian заско́к (zaskók) akin to скок (skok), скака́ть (skakátʹ).

## Easily confused with
- **free** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-free)
- **Fred** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-fred)
- **fret** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-fret)
- **Frey** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-frey)
- **fresh** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-fresh)
- **freed** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-freed)
- **Freud** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-freud)
- **frees** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-frees)
- **friar** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-friar)
- **freer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-freer)
- **frick** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-frick)
- **Freya** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-freya)
- **frisk** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-frisk)
- **frock** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-frock)
- **frets** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-frets)
- **Freda** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-freda)
- **Fredo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-fredo)
- **freaks** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-freaks)
- **freaky** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-freaky)
- **freaked** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freak-vs-freaked)

## Common misspellings (7)
`ferak`, `ffreak`, `fraek`, `freakk`, `freka`, `frreak`, `rfeak`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/freak