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crust

noun · verb

Simple meaning

The outer layer of the Earth.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kruhst
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkɹʌst

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The outer layer of the Earth

  2. A hard outer layer that covers something

  3. An outer layer composed of pastry

  4. A more solid, dense or hard layer on a surface or boundary.

  5. The external, hardened layer of certain foodstuffs, including most types of bread, fried meat, etc.

  6. The bread-like base of a pizza.

verb

  1. transitive

    To cover with a crust.

  2. Form a crust or form into a crust

    “The bread crusted in the oven.”

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The outer layer of the Earth

Used this way, crust is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
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 crust

  • “The bread crusted in the oven.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Outer / hard

pie crustthin crustsolid crustouter crust

Other combinations

upper crustlower crusthard crusttop crust

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • crustaladjectiveDerived adjective

    Of or relating to or characteristic of the crust of the earth or moon.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • earth's crustnounCompound term

    The outer layer of the Earth.

  • pie crustnounCompound term

    Pastry used to hold pie fillings.

  • upper crustnounCompound term

    The class occupying the highest position in the social hierarchy.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • crustal platenounRelated term

    A rigid layer of the Earth's crust that is believed to drift slowly.

  • crustal movementnounRelated term

    Movement resulting from or causing deformation of the earth's crust.

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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.