cruel

\kʁy.ɛl\

/\kʁy.ɛl\/ adj

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

The verdict

“cruel” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #8,524. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#8,524
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui inflige la souffrance ou la mort ; qui a un caractère de cruauté, en parlant des hommes, des animaux ou des choses.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cruel · cruel · French

cruel · rank #8,524 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #8,524
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH concessions

Nearest frequency peer: concessions (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « cruel »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « cruel » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

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).

cruel vs cul
60% similar
cruel vs crus
60% similar
cruel vs cruz
60% similar

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

Key facts for cruel
PropertyValue
Headwordcruel
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\kʁy.ɛl\
Letters5
Frequency rank#8,524
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « cruel »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.cruelse place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « concessions » (#8,523), « cuisson » (#8,525), « composants » (#8,522). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cruel » est au #8,524. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around cruel (IPA \kʁy.ɛl\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #8,524 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for cruel, with forms such as "ccruel", "creul", and "crruel". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cul", "crus", "cruz", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is cruel, spelled C-R-U-E-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui inflige la souffrance ou la mort ; qui a un caractère de cruauté, en parlant des hommes, des animaux ou des choses.
  2. 2
    Dur ; sévère ; rigoureux ; inflexible ; exigeant, en parlant des personnes et des choses.
  3. 3
    Douloureux ; fâcheux.
  4. 4
    Insensible. Se dit d’une femme qui repousse les avances de son soupirant.
  5. 5
    Insupportable.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Et même en ce moment où ta bouche cruelle Vient si tranquillement m’annoncer le trépas.
  2. Un tyran cruel.

This word in other languages

cruel(English)cruel(Español)grausam(Deutsch)brutal(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ccruel
  • creul
  • crruel
  • cruell
  • crule
  • curel
  • rcuel

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cruel - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

ccruel1creul2crruel1cruell1crule2curel2rcuel2
Edit distance from "cruel"

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 "cruel"?
"cruel" is spelled C-R-U-E-L. The IPA pronunciation is \kʁy.ɛl\.
What does "cruel" mean?
As an adjective, "cruel" means: Qui inflige la souffrance ou la mort ; qui a un caractère de cruauté, en parlant des hommes, des animaux ou des choses.
What words are commonly confused with "cruel"?
"cruel" is commonly confused with "cul", "crus", "cruz". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cruel"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cruel" is \kʁy.ɛl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cruel" come from?
"cruel" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "cruel", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

clefs#8,516Dylan#8,533bidon#8,505Barry#8,502

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

CNRS7 variantsanneaux7 variantshymne7 variantsLGBT7 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list