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PlainSpell

trick

/ˈtɹɪk/noun, verb, adjective

trick is spelled T-R-I-C-K: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 30 times per million words in written English, the 3,114th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, trick means “Something designed to fool, dupe, outsmart, mislead or swindle” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of trick is tricks.

How many letters and syllables are in trick?

Letters5: T-R-I-C-K
Syllables1
In writing30 times per million words; the 3,114th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is trick?

Trick appears 30 times per million words in written English, the 3,114th 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 trick?

  • /ˈtɹɪk/
  • [ˈt̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷɪk]
  • [ˈtɹ̝̊ʷɪk]

Trick has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-trick.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of trick

  • tricks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • tricking participle, present
  • tricked participle, past
  • tricker comparative
  • trickest superlative

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

What does trick mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Something designed to fool, dupe, outsmart, mislead or swindle.

    It was just a trick to say that the house was underpriced.

  2. 2

    A single element of a magician's (or any variety entertainer's) act; a magic trick.

    And for my next trick, I will pull a wombat out of a duffel bag.

  3. 3

    An entertaining difficult physical action.

    That's a nice skateboard, but can you do any tricks on it?

  4. 4

    An effective, clever or quick way of doing something.

    tricks of the trade; what's the trick of getting this chair to fold up?

  5. 5

    Mischievous or annoying behavior; a prank.

    the tricks of boys

  6. 6

    datedA particular habit or manner; a peculiarity; a trait.

    a trick of drumming with the fingers; a trick of frowning

  7. 7

    A knot, braid, or plait of hair.

  8. 8

    A sequence in which each player plays a card and a winning play is determined.

    I was able to take the second trick with the queen of hearts.

verb

  1. 1

    To fool; to cause to believe something untrue; to deceive.

    You tried to trick me when you said that house was underpriced.

  2. 2

    To draw (as contrasted with to blazon, which is to describe in words).

  3. 3

    To dress; to decorate; to adorn fantastically; often followed by up, off, or out.

  4. 4

    To engage in prostitution or casual sex.

adjective

  1. 1

    Involving trickery or deception.

    trick photography

  2. 2

    Able to perform tricks.

    A trick pony

  3. 3

    Defective or unreliable.

    a trick knee

  4. 4

    USslangStylish or cool.

    Wow, your new sportscar is so trick.

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

Trick in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchtour (something designed to fool), astuce, truc (effective, clever or quick way of doing…), pli (mischievous or annoying behavior; a prank), duper, tromper (to fool; to cause to believe something untrue)
GermanList, Falle, Finte, Trick (something designed to fool), austricksen (to fool; to cause to believe something untrue), Kunststück (magic trick)
Portugueseartimanha, truque (something designed to fool), macete (effective, clever or quick way of doing…), peça (mischievous or annoying behavior; a prank), enganar, enrolar (to fool; to cause to believe something untrue)
Spanishtruco, artimaña, engañifa, treta, triquiñuela, cancamusa (something designed to fool)

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 trick come from?

From Middle English trikke, from Old Northern French trique (related to Old French trichier (“to defraud, act dishonestly, conceal, deceive, cheat”); > modern French tricher), itself possibly from Middle High German trechen (“to launch a shot at, play a trick on”), or one of its derivatives (e.g.

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

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