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PlainSpell

crane

/kɹeɪn/noun, verb

crane is spelled C-R-A-N-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 8.3 times per million words in written English, the 8,036th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, crane means “Any bird of the family Gruidae, large birds with long legs and a long neck which is extended during flight” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of crane is cranes.

How many letters and syllables are in crane?

Letters5: C-R-A-N-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing8.3 times per million words; the 8,036th 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 crane?

Crane appears 8.3 times per million words in written English, the 8,036th 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 crane?

  • US /kɹeɪn/
  • Australia /kɹæɪn/
  • /kɾen/

Crane 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: En-us-crane.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with crane

Also written: cran.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with crane?

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

Spelled with the same letters in another order: rance, caner, nacre.

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 crane

  • cranes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • craning participle, present
  • craned participle, past

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

What does crane mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Any bird of the family Gruidae, large birds with long legs and a long neck which is extended during flight.

    Aquatic birds of various kinds are very numerous, such as geese, darters (Flotus melanogaster), scissor-bills (Rhynchops nigra), adjutants (Leptoptilos argala), pelicans, cormorants, cranes (Grus antigone, in Burmese gyoja), whimbrels, plov

  2. 2

    USArdea herodias, the great blue heron.

  3. 3

    A mechanical lifting machine or device, often used for lifting heavy loads for industrial or construction purposes.

  4. 4

    An iron arm with horizontal motion, attached to the side or back of a fireplace for supporting kettles etc. over the fire.

  5. 5

    A siphon, or bent pipe, for drawing liquors out of a cask.

  6. 6

    A forked post or projecting bracket to support spars, etc.; generally used in pairs.

  7. 7

    obsoleteThe cranium.

  8. 8

    Alternative form of cran (“measure of herrings”).

verb

  1. 1

    To extend (one's neck).

  2. 2

    To raise or lower with, or as if with, a crane.

  3. 3

    To pull up before a jump.

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

Crane in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchgrue (bird), étirer (le cou) (to extend (one's neck))
GermanKranich (bird), den Hals recken (to extend (one's neck)), Kran (machinery)
Portuguesegrou (bird), guindaste, grua (machinery)
Spanishgrulla, grúa (bird), estirar el cuello (to extend (one's neck)), güinche, guinche, titán (machinery)

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 crane come from?

From Middle English crane, from Old English cran (“crane”), from Proto-West Germanic *kran, *kranō, from Proto-Germanic *kranô (“crane”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- (“to cry hoarsely”).

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

What to look up after crane