cruel
French, adjective/kʁy.ɛl/
cruel is spelled C-R-U-E-L (5 letters) and appears 7.2 times per million words in written French, the 8,517th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Cruel is a French adjective meaning “cruel” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Qui inflige la souffrance ou la mort ; qui a un caractère de cruauté, en parlant des hommes, des animaux ou…”.
What does cruel mean in English?
adjective
- 1
cruel
- 2
hard, painful
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. Qui inflige la souffrance ou la mort ; qui a un caractère de cruauté, en parlant des hommes, des animaux ou des choses. 2. Dur ; sévère ; rigoureux ; inflexible ; exigeant, en parlant des personnes et des choses. 3. Douloureux ; fâcheux. 4. Insensible. Se dit d’une femme qui repousse les avances de son soupirant.
noun: 1. Personne qui fait preuve de férocité, de méchanceté. 2. Femme qui n’écoute pas un amant. 3. Amante qui, sans le vouloir, torture le cœur de l’amoureux.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of cruel
- cruelle feminine
- cruels masculine plural
- cruelles feminine plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce cruel?
- /kʁy.ɛl/
- \kʁy.ɛl\
- [kʁyɛl]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to cruel
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is cruel in French?
cruel appears 7.2 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).