Which to use
“cruel” is an adjective and “crut” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,524
- “cruel” frequency rank
- #30,968
- “crut” frequency rank
- 39492
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cruel | crut |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui inflige la souffrance ou la mort ; qui a un caractère de cruauté, en parlant des hommes, des animaux ou des choses. | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de croire. |
Where the eye mixes cruel and crut
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cruel runs 5 letters (CCVVC) against crut's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: cruel vs crut
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cruel is \kʁy.ɛl\ while crut is \kʁy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cruel is recorded at frequency rank #8,524, classified as anadj, pronounced \kʁy.ɛl\. crut is at rank #30,968, tagged as averb, pronounced \kʁy\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 39492, this pair ranks #247,529 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cruel vs crut
Shared letters: cru. Private to "cruel": el. Private to "crut": t.
"cruel" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "crut" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cruel" and "crut" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "cruel" vs "crut" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cruel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #247,529 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cruel" and "crut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "count vs crut". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #247,529 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.