Word.ws English Dictionary

crikey

UK/ˈkɹaɪki/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈkɹɑeki/

crikey interjection: an exclamation of astonishment.

Interjection

  1. (Australia, Commonwealth, Ireland, UK) An exclamation of astonishment.
    • Crikey, mate, that ain't a knife, this is a knife!
    • The label is based on the word “crikey” the famous catchphrase of Steve Irwin, and “core,” meaning the essential part of anything, according to dictionary.com.2023 February 16, Erielle Sudario, “Australia gets its own online aesthetic with 'crikeycore'”, in We Got This Covered, archived from the original on 23 Nov 2023
    Synonyms:
    wow

Synonyms of crikey

Forms of crikey

alternative uncommoncrickey
alternative uncommoncricky

Origin of crikey

Euphemistic substitute for Christ, perhaps a corruption of Christ King. Compare criminy, cripes, crivvens. Attested from the 19th century.

Words formed from crikey

Words that rhyme with crikey

Questions about crikey

What does crikey mean?
Crikey means an exclamation of astonishment.
What part of speech is crikey?
Crikey is an interjection.
How do you pronounce crikey?
Crikey is pronounced /ˈkɹaɪki/ (UK).

Words near crikey in the dictionary

  1. Crihfields
  2. CRIII
  3. crik
  4. crike
  5. crikes
  6. crikey
  7. crikeycore
  8. criks
  9. Crikvenica
  10. crile
  11. criles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crikey (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: EN-AU ck1 crikey.ogg.

Cite this entry: “crikey.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crikey. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.