cru

\kʁy\

/\kʁy\/ adj

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

The verdict

“cru” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #1,326) as an adjective. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#1,326
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui n’est pas cuit.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cru · cru · French

cru · rank #1,326 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,326
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH consommation

Nearest frequency peer: consommation (-1 rank slots)

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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « cru »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « cru » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

cru vs CV
0% similar
cru vs Ct
0% similar
cru vs Cs
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for cru
PropertyValue
Headwordcru
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\kʁy\
Letters3
Frequency rank#1,326
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « cru »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).cruse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « consommation » (#1,325), « dedans » (#1,327), « connaît » (#1,324). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cru » est au #1,326. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for cru is neighbouring look-alikes ("CV", "Ct", …), not just typos; it is anadjective pronounced \kʁy\. Frequency #1,326 among 8,609 “C” headwords. 10 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for cru, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CV", "Ct", "Cs", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is cru, spelled C-R-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui n’est pas cuit.
  2. 2
    Très indigeste.
  3. 3
    Qui ne cuit pas les légumes, qui ne dissout pas le savon, en parlant d’une eau.
  4. 4
    Qui n’a pas subi de transformation.
  5. 5
    Désagréable et dit sans aucun ménagement, sans prendre de précaution.
  6. 6
    Indécent.
  7. 7
    Qui ne se marie pas, qui ne se fond pas avec le ton qui l’avoisine, en parlant d’un ton en peinture.
  8. 8
    Qui tranche nettement, en parlant d’une couleur, d’une lumière, d’une ombre…
  9. 9
    En parlant du temps, froid et humide.
  10. 10
    Qualifie une eau dont la teneur en ions calcium et magnésium dépasse un certain seuil.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Dans Mythologiques , Claude Lévi-Strauss écrit que cuire un aliment, c’est couper court au processus naturel qui fait qu’à terme un aliment cru (un légume, un fruit, un morceau de viande) devient une chose pourrie.
  2. Ce fruit est bien cru pour l’estomac.

Antonyms

cuit

This word in other languages

raw(English)crudo(Español)roh(Deutsch)cru(Português)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "cru"?
"cru" is spelled C-R-U. The IPA pronunciation is \kʁy\.
What does "cru" mean?
As an adjective, "cru" means: Qui n’est pas cuit.
What words are commonly confused with "cru"?
"cru" is commonly confused with "CV", "Ct", "Cs". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cru"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cru" is \kʁy\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cru" come from?
"cru" is a French 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cru", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

sac#1,345vit#1,282vin#1,383fil#1,263

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list