cramp

1. 1.

   a painful and involuntary muscular contraction

   Synonymsspasmmuscle spasm

   Broadersymptom

   Narrowercharley horsewriter's crampblepharospasmcrickmyoclonusopisthotonostwitchtenesmustrismus
2. 2.

   a clamp for holding pieces of wood together while they are glued

   Broaderclamp
3. 3.

   a strip of metal with ends bent at right angles; used to hold masonry together

   Synonymscramp iron

   Broaderstrip

Other forms of cramp

plural

cramps·

past tense

cramped·

present participle

cramping·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about cramp

What does cramp mean?

cramp means "secure with a cramp". That is the primary sense; the word has 7 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in cramp?

cramp has 1 syllable: cramp. In IPA it is /ˈkɹæmp/.

What is another word for cramp?

Close synonyms include hamper, halter, strangle, spasm, muscle spasm. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is cramp a common word?

cramp is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.