CRUEL

Meaning

To spoil or ruin (one's chance of success)

• adjectiveIntentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless.
• adverbTo a great degree; terribly.

CRUEL as a word-puzzle answer

CRUEL is a 5-letter word with 2 vowels (U, E) and 3 consonants (C, R, L). Every letter is distinct, so it rarely punishes a clean opening guess.

It leans on high-frequency letters (R, E), so a strong vowel-and-common-consonant opener tends to light up quickly. There are no rare letters here, so it is a fair, mid-difficulty answer for the daily Classic puzzle.

CRUEL by the numbers

Across the 1,734 curated answers in the Wordocious bank, E appears in 50% of answers (the 1st most common letter), R appears in 37% of answers (the 3rd most common letter), L appears in 26% of answers (the 8th most common letter). 29 other answers share the opening “CR-”, so two green tiles up front still leave real guessing to do.

Difficulty: 1/5 — very approachable, because its letters are common and no close neighbors compete with it.

Near misses

Same letters, different order: ULCER — yellow-heavy boards can be hiding this anagram instead.

Put it to use

Words like CRUEL are exactly what the daily puzzles throw at you. Warm up in Practice, race the clock in the Daily Challenge, or study the best starting words before your next run. New to the multi-board modes? The mode guides cover all nine.