Cruella

noun

"cruella" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Cruella” is uncommon English (frequency #58,620 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#58,620
frequency rank, English
5,599
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A cruel, despicable, or otherwise unpleasant woman.

Corpus desk

Index EN-cruella · Cruella · English

Cruella · rank #58,620 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #58,620
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,599
  • PHOTO-FINISH Covina

Nearest frequency peer: Covina (-3 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 “Cruella”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Cruella
PropertyValue
HeadwordCruella
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters7
Frequency rank#58,620
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Cruella” 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).Cruellafalls in this rarity band:

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

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “Covina” (#58,617), “curbside” (#58,624), “Coulthard” (#58,615). Among 5,599 “C” headwords, “Cruella” is #58,620. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Cruella is uncommon English at frequency #58,620 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A cruel, despicable, or otherwise unpleasant woman.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for Cruella, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: After the fictional character Cruella de Vil (a pun on the words cruel and devil); from cruel + -a (forming female names). The correct English form is Cruella, spelled C-R-U-E-L-L-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    A cruel, despicable, or otherwise unpleasant woman.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. But I am left to wonder, what kind of a government, what kind of a Cruella, could cut retirement benefits to a group of Eskimos in their eighties, in the dead of an Alaskan winter, and say: Sorry, there is nothing we can do.
  2. One person may be a refined aristocrat in a social setting, and switch to a Cruella at the steering wheel. If you believe you are in good shape and find yourself snapping at others with less power than yourself, watch out, as your emotional stability may only be a façade.

Etymology

After the fictional character Cruella de Vil (a pun on the words cruel and devil); from cruel + -a (forming female names).

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 "Cruella"?
"Cruella" is spelled C-R-U-E-L-L-A.
What does "Cruella" mean?
As a noun, "Cruella" means: A cruel, despicable, or otherwise unpleasant woman.
What is the origin of the word "Cruella"?
After the fictional character Cruella de Vil (a pun on the words cruel and devil); from cruel + -a (forming female names). 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 "Cruella", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list