scarecrow
/ˈskɛəkɹəʊ/
"scarecrow" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“scarecrow” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #25,919 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #25,919
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An effigy, typically made of straw and dressed in old clothes, fixed to a pole in a field to deter birds from eating crops or seeds planted there.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | scarecrow |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈskɛəkɹəʊ/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #25,919 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “scarecrow” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for scarecrow is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈskɛəkɹəʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #25,919 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 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for scarecrow, with forms such as "csarecrow", "sacrecrow", and "scaercrow". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is derived from scare (“to frighten, startle, terrify”) + crow (“bird of the genus Corvus”). The word displaced other terms such as bogle (now dialectal, dated), sewel or shewel, and shoy-hoy (perhaps imitative of the cry of crows). The verb is der… The correct English form is scarecrow, spelled S-C-A-R-E-C-R-O-W.
Definition
- 1An effigy, typically made of straw and dressed in old clothes, fixed to a pole in a field to deter birds from eating crops or seeds planted there.
- 2A person or animal regarded as resembling a scarecrow (sense 1) in some way; especially, a tall, thin, awkward person; or a person wearing ragged and tattered clothes.
- 3Synonym of crow scarer (“a farmhand employed to scare birds from the fields”).
- 4Anything that appears terrifying but presents no danger; a paper tiger.
- 5Military equipment or tactics used to scare and deter rather than cause actual damage.
- 6The black tern (Chlidonias niger).
- 7The hooded crow (Corvus cornix).
Etymology
The noun is derived from scare (“to frighten, startle, terrify”) + crow (“bird of the genus Corvus”). The word displaced other terms such as bogle (now dialectal, dated), sewel or shewel, and shoy-hoy (perhaps imitative of the cry of crows). The verb is derived from the noun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: csarecrow,sacrecrow,scaercrow,scarcerow,scareccrow,scarecorw,scarecroww,scarecrrow,scarecrwo,scarercow,scarrecrow,sccarecrow,scraecrow,sscarecrow
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of scarecrow - 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
How do you spell "scarecrow"?
What does "scarecrow" mean?
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Using “scarecrow”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-C-A-R-E-C-R-O-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈskɛəkɹəʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.