Crooked

How to spell crooked

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce crooked

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does crooked mean?

1. adjectiveBent, curved, or not in a straight line.
2. adjectiveDishonest or acting in an illegal, untrustworthy way.

Crooked in a sentence

• The old fence ran along a crooked line down the hillside.

• The crooked accountant siphoned money from the firm for years.

• He hung the painting at a slightly crooked angle.

• Investigators uncovered a crooked scheme to rig the contracts.

Where does crooked come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This word grew out of 'crook', which English took from the Old Norse word 'krokr', meaning a hook or a bend. Norse settlers brought the term to England, where it described shepherds' hooked staffs and any bent or curved shape. By the 1200s writers were adding the adjective ending '-ed' to give 'crooked', literally 'having a crook or bend', and the spelling has stayed faithful to that build ever since. The figurative sense of 'dishonest' followed naturally: a person who was not morally straight was described as crooked, just as a path that was not straight was. The spelling trap is the pronunciation, since the everyday adjective is sounded as two syllables, KROOK-id, even though the '-ed' looks like a simple past tense; this is why some writers wrongly drop a letter or expect a different ending.

How the word is built

• crook (a bend or hook, from Old Norse krokr)
• -ed (adjective suffix forming 'having a bend')