cru
/kɹuː/
"cru" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cru” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #40,193 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #40,193
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A vineyard or group of vineyards in France, especially one having a high reputation.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cru |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kɹuː/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #40,193 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cru” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cru is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kɹuː/. Corpus data places it at rank #40,193 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A vineyard or group of vineyards in France, especially one having a high reputation.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for cru, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CT", "cs", "CV", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French cru (“growth”), from French crû, past participle of French croître (“grow”). The correct English form is cru, spelled C-R-U.
Definition
- 1A vineyard or group of vineyards in France, especially one having a high reputation.
Etymology
Borrowed from French cru (“growth”), from French crû, past participle of French croître (“grow”).
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
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Using “cru”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-R-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kɹuː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “CT” - see the side-by-side comparison. cru vs CT
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.