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:
Liu and his team took a several-hundred-million-dollar hit earlier this year after a wrong-way bet on diesel and crude prices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Analysts at ING said the inventory draw partly reflected hurricane-related production disruptions and lower crude imports.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Despite recovering Middle East oil flows, uncertainty surrounding the conflict continues to support crude prices, analysts at ING said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
The problem isn’t simply expensive crude, but a shortage of refined products.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
It sounded so crude and callous, in the dark print of the newspaper.
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
“Brent-priced crudes are having a harder time competing in Asian markets,” said Aaron Kildow, senior market strategist at Sparta Commodities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
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
Mark Lashier: It is very important for the U.S. economy, and even for national security, that we have a wide variety of crudes that we can access.
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
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
But as a patrol of environmentalists approaches the Chilean super trawler in an inflatable boat, the cruder realities of modern industrial fishing come into view.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 13, 2023
"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
The crudest teachers were those who had come from homes similar to those of the poor children.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
