cruel

Other forms of cruel

comparative

crueler·

superlative

cruelest·

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 cruel

What does cruel mean?

cruel means "(of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering".

How many syllables are in cruel?

cruel has 2 syllables: cru-el. The stress falls on "cru". In IPA it is /ˈkɹuəl/.

What is another word for cruel?

Close synonyms include barbarous, brutal, fell, roughshod, savage. 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 cruel a common word?

cruel is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with cruel?

1 word rhymes with cruel. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.