Which to use
“cruel” is an adjective and “crush” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,617
- “cruel” frequency rank
- #24,279
- “crush” frequency rank
- 29896
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cruel | crush |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | que tem prazer em fazer mal | interesse em alguém, atração física por outra pessoa, possível ou platônica |
Letter map: cruel vs crush
Shared letters muted; letters that set cruel and crush apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. cruel (CCVVC) and crush (CCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for cruel / crush
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cruel is anadjective and crushanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29896, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cruel is recorded at frequency rank #5,617, classified as anadj, pronounced /kɾu.ˈɛɫ/. crush is at rank #24,279, tagged as anoun.
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 29896, this pair ranks #38,637 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cruel vs crush
Shared letters: cru. Private to "cruel": el. Private to "crush": hs.
"cruel" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "crush" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cruel" and "crush" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cruel" or "crush" show up more?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "cruel" and "crush".
- Full dictionary entry for "cruel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crush" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #38,637 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cruel" and "crush" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "creep vs cruel". 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 #38,637 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.