Creepy

How to spell creepy

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce creepy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does creepy mean?

1. adjectiveCausing an unpleasant feeling of fear, unease, or revulsion.

Creepy in a sentence

• The abandoned hospital had a creepy atmosphere after dark.

• She found his constant staring genuinely creepy.

Where does creepy come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word creep comes from the Old English creopan, meaning 'to crawl' or 'to move with the body close to the ground', the sort of motion you associate with insects, reptiles, and stealthy approaches. The adjective creepy was formed by adding the common -y suffix, and it appears in English from the early 1800s, first describing the literal sensation of something crawling over the skin, as in 'a creepy feeling'. From that bodily shiver the meaning broadened to anything that produces such a reaction: places, people, or atmospheres that make your flesh crawl. The same creopan root sits behind the noun creep and the slow advance described by 'mission creep'. Because the spelling simply doubles the e of creep, the main trap is remembering that double e rather than writing a single 'crepy'.

How the word is built

• creep (from Old English creopan: to crawl, move low)
• -y (adjective suffix)