cress

/kɹɛs/

//kɹɛs// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"cress" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“cress” is uncommon English (frequency #53,471 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#53,471
frequency rank, English
5,599
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A plant of various species, chiefly cruciferous. The leaves have a moderately pungent taste, and are used as a salad and antiscorbutic.

Corpus desk

Index EN-cress · cress · English

cress · rank #53,471 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #53,471
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,599
  • PHOTO-FINISH creationist

Nearest frequency peer: creationist (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Long-tail ranks near “cress”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “cress” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for cress
PropertyValue
Headwordcress
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/kɹɛs/
Letters5
Frequency rank#53,471
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “cress” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).cressfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “creationist” (#53,470), “cron” (#53,472), “crazily” (#53,469). Among 5,599 “C” headwords, “cress” is #53,471. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

cress is uncommon English at frequency #53,471 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /kɹɛs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A plant of various species, chiefly cruciferous. The leaves have a moderately pungent taste, and are used as a salad and antiscorbutic.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for cress, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English cresse, crasse, from Old English cressa, cærse (“cress”), from Proto-West Germanic *krassjō, from Proto-Germanic *krasjô (“cress”). Cognate with West Frisian kers (“cress”), Dutch kers (“cress”), German Kresse (“cress”), Danish karse (“c… The correct English form is cress, spelled C-R-E-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    A plant of various species, chiefly cruciferous. The leaves have a moderately pungent taste, and are used as a salad and antiscorbutic.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how cress appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Marcus Empiricus, a Roma physician, prescribed three scruples of cress, three of red onion, three of pine seed, three of Indian nard, for impotence.

Etymology

From Middle English cresse, crasse, from Old English cressa, cærse (“cress”), from Proto-West Germanic *krassjō, from Proto-Germanic *krasjô (“cress”). Cognate with West Frisian kers (“cress”), Dutch kers (“cress”), German Kresse (“cress”), Danish karse (“cress”), Swedish krasse (“cress”), Icelandic krassi (“cress”).

This word in other languages

mastuerzo(Español)cresson(Français)Kresse(Deutsch)agrião(Português)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "cress"?
"cress" is spelled C-R-E-S-S. The IPA pronunciation is /kɹɛs/.
What does "cress" mean?
As a noun, "cress" means: A plant of various species, chiefly cruciferous. The leaves have a moderately pungent taste, and are used as a salad and antiscorbutic.
How do you pronounce "cress"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cress" is /kɹɛs/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "cress"?
From Middle English cresse, crasse, from Old English cressa, cærse (“cress”), from Proto-West Germanic *krassjō, from Proto-Germanic *krasjô (“cress”). Cognate with West Frisian kers (“cress”), Dutch kers (“cress”), German Kresse (“cress”), Danish... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cress", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

coves#53,468damme#53,482COBOL#53,449Chaco#53,432

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list