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PlainSpell

cream

/kɹim/noun, adjective, verb

cream is spelled C-R-E-A-M: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 42 times per million words in written English, the 2,392nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, cream means “The butterfat or milkfat part of milk which rises to the top; this part when separated from the remainder” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cream is creams.

How many letters and syllables are in cream?

Letters5: C-R-E-A-M
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing42 times per million words; the 2,392nd 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 cream?

Cream appears 42 times per million words in written English, the 2,392nd 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 cream?

  • UK /kɹiːm/
  • US /kɹim/
  • /kɾim/

Cream 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-cream.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with cream?

7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as cream from its last stressed vowel (/im/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: crema, macer, crame.

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 cream

  • creams plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • creme
  • creyme
  • creaming participle, present
  • creamed participle, past

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

What does cream mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    The butterfat or milkfat part of milk which rises to the top; this part when separated from the remainder.

    Take 100 ml of cream and 50 grams of sugar…

  2. 2

    USThe liquid separated from milk, possibly with certain other milk products added, and with at least eighteen percent of it milkfat.

    You may have noticed that any time that filling is mentioned on Oreo packaging, it's called "creme." This is no typo. Technically, the creamy filling inside an Oreo is not cream at all: The recipe used actually contains no dairy; as such, t

  3. 3

    UKThe liquid separated from milk containing at least 18 percent milkfat (48% for double cream).

  4. 4

    A portion of cream, such as the amount found in a creamer.

    I take my coffee with two cream and three sugar.

  5. 5

    A yellowish white color; the color of cream.

  6. 6

    informalFrosting, custard, creamer, or another substance similar to the oily part of milk or to whipped cream.

  7. 7

    A dish prepared through creaming, particularly cream of

  8. 8

    The best part of something.

    the cream of the crop

adjective

  1. 1

    Cream-coloured; having a yellowish white colour.

verb

  1. 1

    To puree, to blend with a liquifying process.

    Cream the vegetables with the olive oil, flour, salt and water mixture.

  2. 2

    To turn a yellowish white color; to give something the color of cream.

  3. 3

    slangTo obliterate, to defeat decisively.

    We creamed the opposing team!

  4. 4

    slangvulgarTo ejaculate or become wet (used of either gender).

  5. 5

    slangvulgarTo be very enthusiastic about or attracted to something (used especially of women).

  6. 6

    slangvulgarTo ejaculate in (clothing or a bodily orifice).

  7. 7

    To rub, stir, or beat (butter) into a light creamy consistency.

  8. 8

    To skim, or take off by skimming, as cream.

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

Cream in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcrème (fatty part of milk), crème de la crème, fleur, fine fleur, fin du fin (the best part), écraser (to obliterate, to win over someone else quite…)
GermanSahne, Obers, Schmetten, Rahm (fatty part of milk), Creme (colour), cremen (to cream vegetables)
Portuguesecreme, nata (fatty part of milk)
Spanishnata, crema (fatty part of milk), la flor y la crema, la crema (the best part), bayo, de color crema (colour)

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 cream come from?

From Middle English creime, creme, from Old French creme, cresme, blend of Late Latin chrisma (“ointment”) (from Ancient Greek χρῖσμα (khrîsma, “unguent”)), and Late Latin crāmum (“cream”), from Gaulish *crama (compare Welsh cramen (“scab, skin”), Breton crammen), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krama- (compare Middle Irish screm (“surface, skin”), Dutch schram (“abrasion”), Lithuanian kramas (“scurf”)). Doublet of crema and crème. Displaced native Old English rēam (“cream”) (> modern ream). Figurative sense of "most excellent element or part" appears from 1581.

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

What to look up after cream