crude
Americanadjective
-
cruder,
comparative
-
crudest
superlative
-
in a raw or unprepared state; unrefined or natural.
crude sugar.
- Synonyms:
- coarse, unfinished
- Antonyms:
- refined
-
lacking in intellectual subtlety, perceptivity, etc.; rudimentary; undeveloped.
-
lacking finish, polish, or completeness.
a crude summary.
-
lacking culture, refinement, tact, etc..
crude behavior.
- Antonyms:
- refined
-
undisguised; blunt.
a crude answer.
-
Obsolete. unripe; not mature.
noun
-
crudes
plural
adjective
-
lacking taste, tact, or refinement; vulgar
a crude joke
-
in a natural or unrefined state
-
lacking care, knowledge, or skill
a crude sketch
-
(prenominal) stark; blunt
the crude facts
-
(of statistical data) unclassified or unanalysed
-
archaic unripe
noun
Synonym Usage
See raw.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of crude
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin crūdus “uncooked, raw, bleeding, rough,” akin to cruor “blood from a wound”; see raw
Explanation
Is it gross? Unsophisticated? Totally tasteless and positively offensive? Then you can describe it as crude. Crude is not rude when it’s used to describe unprocessed oil, which it first was associated with in 1865. From the Latin crudo, meaning "rough, raw," crude today can be used to describe anything or anyone that's unrefined and rough around the edges. So don’t be too insulted by the large-nosed portrait that cartoonist made for you. It’s just a quick, crude drawing meant to be funny.
Vocabulary lists containing crude
The Diary of Anne Frank
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List 3
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The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"Canada fuels American growth, supplying 99 percent of their natural gas imports, 85 percent of their electricity imports, 60 percent of their crude oil imports," Carney said Saturday.
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
Brent crude oil held above $93 a barrel in the absence of progress in U.S.-Iran peace efforts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Hey, the American public can be crude and cruel.
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2026
That is extraordinary for a country widely recognised as an energy superpower and one of the world's leading exporters of crude oil.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
With her forepaws and sharp teeth she pulled off a part of the husk from the top ear of corn and folded it double to serve as a crude carrying bag.
From "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" by Robert C. O'Brien
Marathon and Valero noted strong performance from their West Coast refineries, citing recent California refinery closures and increased availability of California crudes, in addition to the war.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
The investment allowed them to take advantage of the light-heavy spread, as heavy crudes are typically cheaper because they are lower quality and require more processing.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 29, 2026
There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding U.S.-Iran tensions, and “the market for non-sanctioned crudes is tight,” he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 2, 2026
We invested in a number of low-capital, high-return projects that have allowed us to make more jet fuel, to be more flexible in the crudes that we process, and to make higher-octane gasoline.
From Barron's ● Jan. 10, 2026
It is made from carbolic acid and the famous trinitrotoluene is made from toluene, both of which you will find in the list of the ten fundamental "crudes."
From Creative Chemistry Descriptive of Recent Achievements in the Chemical Industries by Edwin E. Slosson
In addition to the Shahed-136, Iran also has stocks of earlier, cruder models of the Shahed that it can turn to.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 1, 2026
The stage for his artistic blossoming was set in 1482, when he left the rich mercantile city of Florence for the cruder, more bumptious northern city of Milan.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 18, 2024
It’s a much cruder, but drastically cheaper, way of monitoring the disease over time versus trying to test as many people as possible.
From Slate ● Jan. 19, 2024
"That is not the modus operandi. It's slightly cruder than that, on the whole."
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2023
Aenys was older, cruder, and more clever—a commander, not a swordsman.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Mr. Sokolov and co-writer Alex Litvak barely bother with scratching out the crudest imaginable dialogue, which is unfortunate because they fancy themselves the creators of a sociopolitical satire along the lines of “Get Out.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 26, 2026
The production, directed by La Jolla Playhouse outgoing artistic director Christopher Ashley, makes musical comedy seem like the crudest of art forms.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2025
The company's scientists took the crudest of the crude oil components -- the sludge left at the bottom after the distillation process -- and pushed it through one of the membranes.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2023
“It’s very difficult to find reliable indicators for even the crudest differences between pleasant and unpleasant music, let alone for the subtle differences that make a nice musical piece become a hit,” he says.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 30, 2023
This may be the crudest twist yet in high- stakes testing.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
