cruel

CEFRB1

/ˈkɹuːəl/

adjective · adverb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Deliberately causing pain or suffering.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Cool; awesome; neat.

Examples

  • He was known to be a cruel dictator.

  • It is cruel of you to find fault with her.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˈkɹʉul/
  • /kɹʊəl/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Harsh; severe.

  2. Intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless.

adverb

Extra meaning

  1. To a great degree; terribly.

More examples

In context

  • The monster's smile was cruel.

  • The supervisor was very cruel to Josh, as he would always give Josh the hardest, most degrading work he could find.

  • We're certainly having quite a cruel winter this year.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The blank dictator showed no mercy to his political opponents.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

From Middle English cruel, borrowed from Old French cruel, from Latin crūdēlis (“hard, severe, cruel”), akin to crūdus (“raw, crude”); see crude.