crane C₃R₁A₁N₁E₁

The same five letters name a bird and a piece of industrial equipment, so context decides which crane you mean. The bird belongs to the Gruidae family; the machine lifts loads on construction and industrial sites. CRANE is also an allowed Wordle guess and a recorded answer, with four anagrams and eleven one-letter neighbours for other word-game clues.

CRANE at a glance

• CRANE has two familiar senses: the Gruidae bird and a machine for lifting heavy loads.
• Its Scrabble face value is 7: C is worth 3, while R, A, N, and E each score 1.
• Four anagrams use the same tiles: RANCE, CANER, NACRE, and CRENA.
• CRANE is both an allowed guess and a recorded Wordle answer.
• Eleven one-letter neighbours include CRANK, CRATE, CRAVE, and CRONE.

What does CRANE mean?

As a bird, a crane is large, long-legged, and long-necked; its neck extends during flight. The word also names a mechanical lifting device, often used to raise heavy loads at industrial or construction sites. Those meanings share a name, not a job: one flies, while the other moves cargo.

Older or more specialized uses include an iron arm that supports a kettle over a fireplace and a bent pipe for drawing liquid from a cask. In ordinary conversation, the bird and lifting machine are the senses you are most likely to meet. The surrounding sentence tells you which one is meant.

How does CRANE score in word games?

CRANE scores 7 points before board bonuses in Scrabble. The C supplies 3 of those points, while each of the other four tiles is worth 1. That makes a bonus square under C more valuable than one under R, A, N, or E; the small tiles do not add much on their own.

For Wordle, CRANE is both a permitted guess and an answer in the answer set. Its five different letters test a mix of common consonants and vowels, but the word is not a guaranteed solution to any particular puzzle. For rhyme clues, the 12 listed matches include PLANE, LANE, CANE, SANE, and HUMANE.