When I think of the word "crookedly," the first thing that comes to mind is a crooked smile. Surprisingly, the word has a variety of definitions, including "obliquely," "in an illogical or inconstant manner," and "deceptively." Crookedly is definitely not a word you'd typically use to describe a perfectly straight line, but that's exactly what it means in this case. In grammar and linguistics, a word can be said to be crookedly written if its pronunciation and spelling differ from the norm.