crumb
/kɹʌm/
"crumb" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“crumb” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #29,984 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #29,984
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A small piece which breaks off from baked food (such as cake, biscuit or bread).
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 | crumb |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kɹʌm/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #29,984 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “crumb” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for crumb is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kɹʌm/. Corpus data places it at rank #29,984 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for crumb, with forms such as "ccrumb", "crmub", and "crrumb". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cum", "Cub", "Cruz", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English crome, cromme, crumme, crume, from Old English cruma (“crumb, fragment”), from Proto-Germanic *krumô, *krūmô (“fragment, crumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *grū-mo- (“something scraped together, lumber, junk; to claw, scratch”), from *ger… The correct English form is crumb, spelled C-R-U-M-B.
Definition
- 1A small piece which breaks off from baked food (such as cake, biscuit or bread).
- 2A small piece of any other solid substance.
- 3A bit, small amount.
- 4Ellipsis of crumb rubber.
- 5The soft internal portion of bread, surrounded by crust.
- 6A mixture of sugar, cocoa and milk, used to make industrial chocolate.
- 7A nobody; a worthless person.
- 8A body louse (Pediculus humanus).
Etymology
From Middle English crome, cromme, crumme, crume, from Old English cruma (“crumb, fragment”), from Proto-Germanic *krumô, *krūmô (“fragment, crumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *grū-mo- (“something scraped together, lumber, junk; to claw, scratch”), from *ger- (“to turn, bend, twist, wind”). The b is unetymological, as in limb, appearing in the mid-15th century to match crumble and words like dumb, numb, thumb. Cognate with Dutch kruim (“crumb”), Low German Krome, Krume (“crumb”), German Krume (“crumb”), Danish krumme (“crumb”), Swedish dialectal krumma (“crumb”), Swedish inkråm (“crumbs, giblets”), Icelandic krumur (“crumb”), Latin grūmus (“a little heap”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccrumb,crmub,crrumb,crubm,crumbb,crummb,curmb,rcumb
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of crumb - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "crumb"?
What does "crumb" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "crumb"?
How do you pronounce "crumb"?
What is the origin of the word "crumb"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “crumb”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-R-U-M-B - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kɹʌm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cum” - see the side-by-side comparison. crumb vs cum
- 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.