crumb
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A small piece which breaks off from baked food.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kruhmIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɹʌm
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A small piece which breaks off from baked food (such as cake, biscuit or bread).
A small piece of any other solid substance.
The soft internal portion of bread, surrounded by crust.
figuratively
A bit, small amount.
A mixture of sugar, cocoa and milk, used to make industrial chocolate.
A form of recycled rubber with a granular consistency, generally from tyres after the removal of steel etc.
verb
transitive
To break into crumbs or small pieces with the fingers; to crumble.
Remove crumbs from
Coat with bread crumbs
transitive
To cover with crumbs.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A small piece which breaks off from baked food (such as cake, biscuit or bread).
Used this way, crumb is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It stays understated rather than dramatic. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Mild
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use crumb
- “He gave only a crumb of information about his plans.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Cake or coffeecake topped with a mixture of sugar and butter and flour.
Crumbs of crackers used especially for coating or thickening.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.