Skip to main content
PlainSpell

spastic

/ˈspæstɪk/adjective, noun

spastic is spelled S-P-A-S-T-I-C: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 43,187th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, spastic means “Of, relating to, or affected by spasm” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in spastic?

Letters7: S-P-A-S-T-I-C
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 2 million words; the 43,187th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

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 spastic?

Spastic appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 43,187th 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 spastic?

  • UK /ˈspastɪk/
  • US /ˈspæstɪk/

Spastic has 2 syllables (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: En-au-spastic.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with spastic?

10 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as spastic from its last stressed vowel (/æstɪk/):

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 spastic

  • more spastic comparative
  • most spastic superlative
  • spastics plural

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

What does spastic mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Of, relating to, or affected by spasm.

  2. 2

    Of or relating to spastic paralysis.

  3. 3

    colloquialderogatoryoffensiveIncompetent or physically uncoordinated.

  4. 4

    colloquialderogatoryoffensiveHyperactive or behaving erratically.

noun

  1. 1

    offensiveA person affected by spastic paralysis or spastic cerebral palsy.

  2. 2

    colloquialderogatoryoffensiveA stupid, clumsy person.

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

Spastic in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchspastique (of, relating to, or affected by spasm), handicapé moteur (of or relating to spastic paralysis)
Germanspastisch (of, relating to, or affected by spasm)

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 spastic come from?

Learned borrowing from Latin spasticus, from Ancient Greek σπαστικός (spastikós, “drawing in”). By surface analysis, spasm + -tic. Cf. French spastique and see also spasm.

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

What to look up after spastic