cull
/kʌl/verb, noun
cull is spelled C-U-L-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 30,418th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, cull means “To pick or take someone or something (from a larger group)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in cull?
| Letters | 4: C-U-L-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 30,418th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| 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 cull?
Cull appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 30,418th 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 cull?
- US /kʌl/
- /kʊl/
Cull 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-cull.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with cull?
5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as cull from its last stressed vowel (/ʌl/):
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 cull
- culls present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- culling participle, present
- culled participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cull mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To pick or take someone or something (from a larger group).
- 2
To gather, collect.
There had been an effort a few years back by an artist no one had then heard of–a British New Yorker named Craig Ward, who had been inspired by a friend's photograph of the bacteria in her son's handprint to take to the New York subways to
- 3
To select (animals, plants, etc) from a group and then kill (them) in order to reduce the numbers of the group in a controlled manner.
[…] and tropical ash (81 percent of trees culled). Excessive lean, the second major culling factor, accounted for […] 13 percent of the tropical ash cull trees, and […]
- 4
To kill (an animal, person, etc) for any reason.
Berzin was then replaced by Stiepan Garanin, who was culled for being a 'Japanese spy' (although the uneducated Garanin pleaded to his torturers that he had never even heard of Japan); Garanin was then replaced by Andrei Vyshnyevtsky, who w
- 5
To lay off in order to reduce the numbers of; get rid of.
The company culled more employees this month.
- 6
To selectively not render or process certain objects, such as polygons.
back-face culling
noun
- 1
A selection.
- 2
An organized killing of selected animals.
- 3
An individual animal selected to be killed, or item of produce to be discarded.
- 4
A lobster having only one claw.
- 5
A piece unfit for inclusion within a larger group; an inferior specimen.
- 6
slangA fool, gullible person; a dupe.
- 7
UKobsoleteslangA man or boy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Cull in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | cueillir |
| German | pflücken , keulen |
| Portuguese | catar |
| Spanish | entresacar, machetear, refugar, escardar , seleccionar y luego matar |
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 cull come from?
From Middle English cullen, cuilen, coilen, from Old French cuillir (“collect, gather, select”), from Latin colligō (“gather together”). Doublet of coil.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).