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PlainSpell

crew

/kɹu/noun, verb

crew is spelled C-R-E-W: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 50 times per million words in written English, the 2,041st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, crew means “A group of people (often staff) manning and operating a large facility or piece of equipment such as a factory, ship, boat, airplane, or spacecraft” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of crew is crews.

How many letters and syllables are in crew?

Letters4: C-R-E-W
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing50 times per million words; the 2,041st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
Rhymes with

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 crew?

Crew appears 50 times per million words in written English, the 2,041st 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 crew?

  • UK /kɹuː/
  • British /kɹʉw/
  • US /kɹu/

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

Words people confuse with crew

Sounds like: cru (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: crow, cru.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with crew?

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

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 crew

  • crews plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • crewing participle, present
  • crewed participle, past

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

What does crew mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteAny company of people; an assemblage; a throng.

  2. 2

    A group of people (often staff) manning and operating a large facility or piece of equipment such as a factory, ship, boat, airplane, or spacecraft.

    If you need help, please contact a member of the crew.

  3. 3

    A group of people working together on a task.

    The crews competed to cut the most timber.

  4. 4

    The group of workers on a dramatic production who are not part of the cast.

    There are a lot of carpenters in the crew!

  5. 5

    derogatoryinformalA close group of friends.

    I’d look out for that whole crew down at Jack’s.

  6. 6

    derogatoryA set of individuals lumped together by the speaker.

  7. 7

    A group of Rovers.

  8. 8

    slangA hip-hop or b-boying group.

  9. 9

    ScotlandUKA pen for livestock such as chickens or pigs

  10. 10

    datedThe Manx shearwater.

verb

  1. 1

    To be a member of a vessel's crew.

    We crewed together on a fishing boat last year.

  2. 2

    To be a member of a work or production crew.

    The film was crewed and directed by students.

  3. 3

    To supply workers or sailors for a crew.

  4. 4

    To do the proper work of a sailor.

    The crewing of the vessel before the crash was deficient.

  5. 5

    To take on, recruit (new) crew.

noun

as CREW
  1. 1

    Acronym of continuous review, evaluation, and weeding.

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

Crew in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchéquipage, équipe (group of people operating a large facility or…)
GermanBesatzung, Bemannung, Crew (group of people operating a large facility or…), Mannschaft (non-officer nautical personnel), Stab, Kolonne (group of people working on common task)
Portuguesetripulação, pessoal (group of people operating a large facility or…), equipe (group of people working on common task), gangue (informal: group of friends or associates), tripular (to be a member of a vessel’s crew)
Spanishtripulación (group of people operating a large facility or…), grumete (non-officer nautical personnel), equipo (group of people working on common task), tripulante (member of a crew)

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 crew come from?

From Middle English crue, from Old French creue (“an increase, recruit, military reinforcement”), the feminine past participle of creistre (“grow”), from Latin crescere (“to arise, grow”).

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

What to look up after crew