lucre
lu·cre/ˈluːkɚ/noun
lucre is spelled L-U-C-R-E: 5 letters and 2 syllables (lu·cre). It appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 92,628th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, lucre means “Money, riches, or wealth, especially when seen as having a corrupting effect or causing greed, or obtained in an underhanded manner” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in lucre?
| Letters | 5: L-U-C-R-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: lu·cre |
| In writing | about once in every 10 million words; the 92,628th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 lucre?
Lucre appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 92,628th 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 lucre?
- UK /ˈluːkə/
- UK /ˈljuːkə/
- US /ˈluːkɚ/
Lucre has 2 syllables, split lu·cre in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-lucre.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with lucre?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as lucre (/ukəɹ/).
Spelled with the same letters in another order: cruel, ulcer.
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).
What does lucre mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Money, riches, or wealth, especially when seen as having a corrupting effect or causing greed, or obtained in an underhanded manner.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Lucre in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense money, riches, or wealth:
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 lucre come from?
From Middle English lūcre, lucor, lucour, lucur (“gain in money, profit; money; wages; illicit gain; advantage, benefit”), from Old French lucre or Latin lucrum (“advantage, profit; love of gain, avarice”), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂w- (“gain, profit”) + *-tlom (variant of *-trom (suffix forming nouns denoting tools or instruments)).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).