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PlainSpell

brute

/bɹut/adjective, noun, verb

brute is spelled B-R-U-T-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.6 times per million words in written English, the 16,687th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, brute means “Without reason or intelligence (of animals)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in brute?

Letters5: B-R-U-T-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.6 times per million words; the 16,687th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is brute?

Brute appears 2.6 times per million words in written English, the 16,687th 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 brute?

  • UK /bɹuːt/
  • US /bɹut/
  • Australia /bɹʉːt/

Brute has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-I_learned_some_phrases-bruit.wav, En-us-brute.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with brute?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as brute from its last stressed vowel (/ut/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: tuber, rebut.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of brute

  • more brute comparative
  • most brute superlative
  • brutes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • bruting participle, present
  • bruted participle, past

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

What does brute mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Without reason or intelligence (of animals).

    a brute beast

  2. 2

    Characteristic of unthinking animals; senseless, unreasoning (of humans).

  3. 3

    Unconnected with intelligence or thought; purely material, senseless.

    the brute earth; the brute powers of nature

  4. 4

    Crude, unpolished.

  5. 5

    Strong, blunt, and spontaneous; being purely physical in nature.

    I got the door open through brute force.

  6. 6

    Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless, without intelligence or reason.

    brute violence

noun

  1. 1

    archaicAn animal seen as being without human reason; a senseless beast.

  2. 2

    A person with the characteristics of an unthinking animal; a coarse or brutal person, particularly one who is dim-witted.

    One of them was a hulking brute of a man, heavily tattooed and with a hardened face that practically screamed "I just got out of jail."

  3. 3

    A kind of powerful spotlight.

  4. 4

    UKarchaicOne who has not yet matriculated.

verb

  1. 1

    To shape (diamonds) by grinding them against each other.

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

Brute in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Germananimalisch, tierisch (of animals: without reason or intelligence), dumm, blöd, brachial (of humans: senseless, unreasoning), grob (crude, unpolished)
Spanishbruto (of humans: senseless, unreasoning), bestia (animal destitute of human reason), bucéfalo (brutal person)
Portuguesebesta, criatura (animal destitute of human reason), bruto (brutal person)
Frenchbrute (brutal person)

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 brute come from?

From Middle French brut, from Old French brut, from Latin brūtus (“dull, stupid, insensible”), an Oscan loanword, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us (“heavy”). Cognate with Ancient Greek βαρύς (barús), Persian گران (gerân) and Sanskrit गुरु (gurú) (English guru).

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

What to look up after brute