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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

crew.

A group of people together

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/kɹuː/Received-Pronunciation/kɹʉw/British, Southern, Standard/kɹu/General-American/kɹʉː/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. A group of people together Any company of people; an assemblage; a throng.

    obsolete
  2. A group of people together A group of people (often staff) manning and operating a large facility or piece of equipment such as a factory, ship, boat, airplane, or spacecraft.

    If you need help, please contact a member of the crew.
  3. A group of people together A group of people working together on a task.

    The crews competed to cut the most timber.
  4. A group of people together The group of workers on a dramatic production who are not part of the cast.

    There are a lot of carpenters in the crew!
    The crews for different movies would all come down to the bar at night.
  5. A group of people together A close group of friends.

    derogatory · informal · often
    I’d look out for that whole crew down at Jack’s.
  6. A group of people together A set of individuals lumped together by the speaker.

    derogatory · often
  7. A group of people together A group of Rovers.

  8. A group of people together A hip-hop or b-boying group.

    slang
  9. A group of people together A rowing team manning a single shell.

  10. A person in a crew A member of the crew of a vessel or plant.

    plural
    One crew died in the accident.
  11. A person in a crew A worker on a dramatic production who is not part of the cast.

    plural
    There were three actors and six crew on the set.
  12. A person in a crew A member of a ship's company who is not an officer.

    plural
    The officers and crew assembled on the deck.
    There are quarters for three officers and five crew.
  13. The sport of competitive rowing.

    US · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- Proto-Indo-European *-sḱéti Proto-Indo-European *ḱreh₁-sḱéti Latin crēscere Old French creistre Old French creuebor. Middle English crue English crew From Middle English crue, from Old French creue (“an increase, recruit, military reinforcement”), the feminine past participle of creistre (“grow”), from Latin crescere (“to arise, grow”).

verb/kɹuː/Received-Pronunciation/kɹʉw/British, Southern, Standard/kɹu/General-American/kɹʉː/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. To be a member of a vessel's crew.

    intransitive · transitive
    We crewed together on a fishing boat last year.
    The ship was crewed by fifty sailors.
  2. To be a member of a work or production crew.

    transitive
    The film was crewed and directed by students.
  3. To supply workers or sailors for a crew.

    transitive
  4. To do the proper work of a sailor.

    The crewing of the vessel before the crash was deficient.
  5. To take on, recruit (new) crew.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- Proto-Indo-European *-sḱéti Proto-Indo-European *ḱreh₁-sḱéti Latin crēscere Old French creistre Old French creuebor. Middle English crue English crew From Middle English crue, from Old French creue (“an increase, recruit, military reinforcement”), the feminine past participle of creistre (“grow”), from Latin crescere (“to arise, grow”).

noun/kɹuː/Received-Pronunciation/kɹʉw/British, Southern, Standard/kɹu/General-American/kɹʉː/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. A pen for livestock such as chickens or pigs

    East-Midlands · Northern-England · Scotland · UK · dialectal
Where this word comes from

Probably of Brythonic/Cumbric origin. Compare Middle Welsh creu (“pigsty, hovel, stockade”).

noun/kɹuː/Received-Pronunciation/kɹʉw/British, Southern, Standard/kɹu/General-American/kɹʉː/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. The Manx shearwater.

    dated · dialectal
verb/kɹuː/Received-Pronunciation/kɹʉw/British, Southern, Standard/kɹu/General-American/kɹʉː/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. simple past of crow (“make the characteristic sound of a rooster”).

    UK · archaic · form-of · past
    It was still dark when the cock crew.
verb/kɹuː/Received-Pronunciation/kɹʉw/British, Southern, Standard/kɹu/General-American/kɹʉː/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. simple past and past participle of cry

    Internet · form-of · humorous · nonstandard · participle · past
    the cry I crew
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.