scrum
/skɹʌm/noun, verb
scrum is spelled S-C-R-U-M: 5 letters. It appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,906th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, scrum means “A tightly packed and disorderly crowd of people” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of scrum is scrums.
How many letters and syllables are in scrum?
| Letters | 5: S-C-R-U-M |
|---|---|
| In writing | 1.8 times per million words; the 20,906th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is scrum?
Scrum appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,906th 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 scrum?
- /skɹʌm/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-scrum.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-scrum.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of scrum
- scrums plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- scrumming participle, present
- scrummed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does scrum mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A tightly packed and disorderly crowd of people.
A scrum developed around the bar when free beer was announced.
- 2
CanadaA tightly packed group of reporters surrounding a person, usually a politician, asking for comments about an issue; an opportunity provided for a politician to be approached this way.
A scrum formed around Scott Brison in the House of Commons lobby shortly after he announced his candidacy for the federal Liberal leadership.
- 3
In rugby union or rugby league, all the forwards joined together in an organised way.
- 4
In agile software development (specifically Scrum or related methodologies), a daily meeting in which each developer describes what they have been doing, what they plan to do next, and any impediments to progress.
- 5
Hostile shoving between two groups.
verb
- 1
To form a scrum.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Scrum in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
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 scrum come from?
Either a back-formation from or an apocopic form of scrummage, a variant of scrimmage.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).