crusade
/kɹuːˈseɪd/
"crusade" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“crusade” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #13,129 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #13,129
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of the Papally-endorsed military expeditions undertaken by the Christians of Latin Europe in the 11th to 13th centuries to reconquer the Levant from the Muslims, as well as expeditions along th...
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 | crusade |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kɹuːˈseɪd/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #13,129 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “crusade” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for crusade is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kɹuːˈseɪd/. Corpus data places it at rank #13,129 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for crusade, with forms such as "ccrusade", "crrusade", and "crsuade". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "Crusoe", "crusader", "crude", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French croisade, introduced into English (in the French spelling) by 1575. The modern spelling emerges c. 1760,. Middle French croisade is introduced in the 15th century, based on Spanish cruzada (late 14th century) and Old Occitan crozada (early 13th … The correct English form is crusade, spelled C-R-U-S-A-D-E.
Definition
- 1Any of the Papally-endorsed military expeditions undertaken by the Christians of Latin Europe in the 11th to 13th centuries to reconquer the Levant from the Muslims, as well as expeditions along the Baltic Sea and against the Cathars.
- 2Any war instigated and blessed by the Church for alleged religious ends, (especially) papal-sanctioned military campaigns against infidels or heretics.
- 3A grand, concerted effort towards some purportedly worthy cause.
- 4A mass gathering in a political campaign or during a religious revival effort.
- 5A Portuguese coin; a crusado.
Etymology
From French croisade, introduced into English (in the French spelling) by 1575. The modern spelling emerges c. 1760,. Middle French croisade is introduced in the 15th century, based on Spanish cruzada (late 14th century) and Old Occitan crozada (early 13th century), both reflecting Medieval Latin cruciāta, cruxiata, the feminine singular of the adjective cruciātus used as an abstract noun. Adjectival cruciātus originally meant "tormented; crucified", but from the 12th century crucesignatus was also used for "marked with a cross; making the sign of the cross" and eventually "taking the cross" in the sense of "going on a crusade". Old Occitan crozada is used in the sense "[the Albigensian] crusade" in the Song of the Albigensian crusade, written c. 1213. From vernacular usage, Middle Latin cruciāta also comes to be used in the sense "crusade" from about 1270.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccrusade,crrusade,crsuade,cruasde,crusadde,crusaed,crusdae,crussade,cursade,rcusade
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of crusade - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “crusade”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-R-U-S-A-D-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kɹuːˈseɪd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Crusoe” - see the side-by-side comparison. crusade vs Crusoe
- 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.