cruel
/kɾu.ˈɛɫ/
The verdict
“cruel” is a regularly-used Portuguese word, ranked #5,617 in Portuguese word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #5,617
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 12
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - que tem prazer em fazer mal
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cruel |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /kɾu.ˈɛɫ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #5,617 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 12 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cruel” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for cruel is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kɾu.ˈɛɫ/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,617 in overall Portuguese word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for cruel, with forms such as "ccruel", "creul", and "crruel". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 12 confusable-pair relationships, "cruz", "crush", "cru", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct Portuguese form is cruel, spelled C-R-U-E-L.
Definition
- 1que tem prazer em fazer mal
- 2bárbaro; severo; pungente; doloroso; sanguinário; atroz; dilacerante; perverso
This word in other languages
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 - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "cruel"?
What does "cruel" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "cruel"?
How do you pronounce "cruel"?
What language does "cruel" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “cruel”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is C-R-U-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kɾu.ˈɛɫ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cruz” - see the side-by-side comparison. cruel vs cruz
- Browse more Portuguese words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Portuguese words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.