cut to the quick
"cut-to-the-quick" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cut to the quick” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To hurt a person deeply, especially emotionally.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cut-to-the-quick · cut to the quick · English
cut to the quick · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 16 letters
- VOW-5 5 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cut to the quick |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “cut to the quick” in English
Rare enough to double-check
cut to the quick is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for cut to the quick in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is cut to the quick, spelled C-U-T- -T-O- -T-H-E- -Q-U-I-C-K.
Definition
- 1To hurt a person deeply, especially emotionally.
- 2To incisively discuss the underlying sensitive or unpleasant root of a given topic.
- 3Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cut, quick.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cut to the quick appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I was cut to the quick at the idea of having lost the inestimable privilege of listening to the gifted Kurtz.
But you must remember that we were boys together, and a fellow naturally confides in a chap he was boys together with. Anyway, be that as it may, he poured out his soul to me, and he hadn't been pouring long before I was able to see that he was cut to the quick. His blood pressure was high, his eye rolled in what they call a fine frenzy, and he was death-…
This word in other languages
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.