cruel
Syllables: cru·el/ˈkɹuːəl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
also/kɹuːl/
cruel adjective: intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless. Also the alternative form of crewel.
Adjective
cruel (comparative crueler or crueller or more cruel, superlative cruelest or cruellest or most cruel)
- Intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless.
- The supervisor was very cruel to Josh, as he would always give Josh the hardest, most degrading work he could find.
- Antonyms:
- merciful
- Harsh; severe.
- We're certainly having quite a cruel winter this year.
- The thought that something might befall him that would leave her entirely at the mercy of this beast caused him greater anxiety than the probability that almost certain death awaited her should she be left entirely alone upon the outskirts of the cruel forest.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 193
- Synonyms:
- brutal, callous, strict, cold, insensate, hardhanded, cold-eyed, dour, thick-skinned, flint-hearted
- Cool; awesome; neat.
Adverb
cruel (not comparable)
- To a great degree; terribly.
- "But I've served 'im ten years, and I'm fond of 'im, and, mind you, 'e's a great man, when all's said an' done, and it's an honor to serve 'im. But 'e does try one cruel at times."1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC
- 'I've never got arthritis, though my old dad had it something cruel.'2016, Kerry Greenwood, Murder and Mendelssohn, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 219
Verb
cruel (third-person singular simple present cruels, present participle (US) crueling or (UK) cruelling, simple past and past participle (US) crueled or (UK) cruelled)
- To spoil or ruin (one's chance of success)
- What cruelled him was that Imperial Hotel contract.1937, Vance Palmer, Legend for Sanderson, Sydney: Angus & Robertson, page 226
- He was on the fringes of Test selection last year before a shoulder injury cruelled his chances.2014 April 1, The Sydney Morning Herald
- To violently provoke (a child) in the belief that this will make them more assertive.
- Violence is apparently introduced early by the practice of "cruelling": children even in their first months are physically punished and then encouraged to seek retribution by punishing the punisher.2007, Stewart Motha, “Reconciliation as Domination”, in Scott Veitch, editor, Law and the Politics of Reconciliation, Routledge, published 2016, page 83
- […] I was referring to the area where you were talking about this practice of cruelling; the pinching of babies, sometimes so hard that their skin breaks and may go septic.2009 July 2, Mark Colvin, “Peter Sutton discusses the politics of suffering in Aboriginal communities”, in ABC, archived from the original on 17 Jan 2010
Also used as
cruel is also the alternative form of crewel.
cruel meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Telugu and Malayalam
cruel in Hindi
- that intentionally causes pain and suffering
- निर्दयी nirdayī, क्रूर krūr, ज़ालिम zālim, उग्र ugra, अत्याचारी atyācārī
cruel in Urdu
- that intentionally causes pain and suffering
- ظالِم zālim, نِرْدَیِی nirdayī, ظالِمانَہ zālimāna
cruel in Telugu
- that intentionally causes pain and suffering
- క్రూరమైన krūramaina
cruel in Malayalam
- that intentionally causes pain and suffering
- ക്രൂരം krūraṁ
More languagesFewer languages
- cruel in Gujarati
- ક્રૂર
- cruel in Sanskrit
- क्रूर krūra
- cruel in Nepali
- क्रूर, क्रूरतापूर्ण
- cruel in Tagalog
- malupit
- cruel in Arabic
- قَاسٍ qāsin, الْقَاسِي al-qāsī
- cruel in Malay
- kejam, zalim
- cruel in Indonesian
- kejam, tega
- cruel in Persian
- ظالِم zâlem, بی رَحْم bi rahm, ظالِمانِه zâlemâne
- cruel in Thai
- โหด hòot, ทารุณ taa-run, โหดร้าย hòot-ráai
- cruel in Vietnamese
- độc ác
Examples of cruel in a sentence
- You may be sure they watched the cliffs on their left eagerly for any sign of a break or any place where they could climb them; but those cliffs remained cruel.1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia:
- He was physically the toughest of us and wore five layers of polar clothing, but the cold was cruel and wore us down hour after hour.2013, Ranulph Fiennes, Cold: Extreme Adventures at the Lowest Temperatures on Earth:
- The Trump effect has cruelled Peter Dutton’s campaign.2025 May 1, Barrie Cassidy and Tony Barry, “The Trump effect has left Dutton exposed and Albanese in poll position in this atypical...
Synonyms of cruel
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of cruel
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | crueler |
| comparative | crueller |
| comparative | more cruel |
| superlative | cruelest |
| superlative | cruellest |
| superlative | most cruel |
| alternative form (obsolete) | cruell |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | cruels |
| present participle US | crueling |
| present participle UK | cruelling |
| past participle US | crueled |
| past US | crueled |
| past participle UK | cruelled |
| past UK | cruelled |
| Noun | |
| plural | cruels |
Origin of cruel
From Middle English cruel, borrowed from Old French cruel, from Latin crūdēlis (“hard, severe, cruel”), akin to crūdus (“raw, crude”); see crude.
Words formed from cruel
Phrases with cruel
Words that rhyme with cruel
Questions about cruel
- What does cruel mean?
- Cruel means intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless.
- What is cruel in Hindi?
- Cruel in Hindi is निर्दयी (nirdayī), क्रूर (krūr), ज़ालिम (zālim). See Cruel meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use cruel in a sentence?
- You may be sure they watched the cliffs on their left eagerly for any sign of a break or any place where they could climb them; but those cliffs remained cruel.
- What part of speech is cruel?
- Cruel can be an adjective, an adverb or a verb.
- How do you pronounce cruel?
- Cruel is pronounced /ˈkɹuːəl/.
Words near cruel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cruel (page history and authors); cruel (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cruel (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-cruel.ogg, EN-AU ck1 cruel.ogg.
Cite this entry: “cruel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cruel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.