écru

\e.kʁy\

/\e.kʁy\/ adj

The verdict

“écru” is uncommon French (frequency #93,415 among 1,805 “É” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#93,415
frequency rank, French
1,805
“É” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Encore à l’état naturel.

Corpus desk

Index FR-ecru · écru · French

écru · rank #93,415 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #93,415
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,805
  • PHOTO-FINISH échouerait

Nearest frequency peer: échouerait (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « écru »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « écru » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for écru
PropertyValue
Headwordécru
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\e.kʁy\
Letters4
Frequency rank#93,415
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « écru » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.écrutombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « échouerait » (#93,414), « écœurement » (#93,416), « échevelée » (#93,413). Parmi 1,805 lemmes en « É », « écru » est au #93,415. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

écru is uncommon French at frequency #93,415 among 1,805 “É” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \e.kʁy\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for écru, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is écru, spelled É-C-R-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Encore à l’état naturel.
  2. 2
    De couleur blanche légèrement teintée de jaune, comme celle de la toile non blanchie. #FEFEE0

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Soie écrue, celle qui n’a pas été mise à l’eau bouillante.
  2. Fil écru, celui qui n’a pas été lavé.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

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 "écru"?
"écru" is spelled É-C-R-U. The IPA pronunciation is \e.kʁy\.
What does "écru" mean?
As an adjective, "écru" means: Encore à l’état naturel.
How do you pronounce "écru"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "écru" is \e.kʁy\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "écru" come from?
"écru" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "écru", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list