give someone the creeps
"give-someone-the-creeps" is a 20-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“give someone the creeps” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 23
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To give someone a feeling of uneasiness or mild fright.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | give someone the creeps |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 23 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “give someone the creeps” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for give someone the creeps is 23 letters long, classified as a verb. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To give someone a feeling of uneasiness or mild fright.".
No misspelling variants are generated for give someone the creeps in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is give someone the creeps, spelled G-I-V-E- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E- -T-H-E- -C-R-E-E-P-S.
Definition
- 1To give someone a feeling of uneasiness or mild fright.
Synonyms
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “give someone the creeps”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-I-V-E- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E- -T-H-E- -C-R-E-E-P-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.