cut down

verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

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

The verdict

“cut down” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To cut downward.

Corpus desk

Index EN-cut-down · cut down · English

cut down · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "C" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for cut down
PropertyValue
Headwordcut down
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “cut down” in English

cut downranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

cut down is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 8 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for cut down in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is cut down, spelled C-U-T- -D-O-W-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    To cut downward.
  2. 2
    To adulterate a drug.
  3. 3
    To bring down by cutting.
  4. 4
    To insult, to belittle.
  5. 5
    To reduce the amount of something.
  6. 6
    To slay, often in great numbers.
  7. 7
    To shoot a gun; to shoot (someone or many people), usually to kill them.
  8. 8
    To challenge (someone); to prove superiority to (someone).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. We need to cut the cocaine down.
  2. They want to cut down several trees to make room for the parking lot.

This word in other languages

talar(Español)abattre(Français)fällen(Deutsch)reduzir(Português)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "cut down"?
"cut down" is spelled C-U-T- -D-O-W-N.
What does "cut down" mean?
As a verb, "cut down" means: To cut downward.
What language does "cut down" come from?
"cut down" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list