Which to use
“crème” is an adjective and “crime” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,408
- “crème” frequency rank
- #1,362
- “crime” frequency rank
- 38770
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crème | crime |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Synonym of cream. | A specific act committed in violation of the law, especially criminal law. |
Where the eye mixes crème and crime
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. crème and crime follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: crème vs crime
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crème is /kɹɛm/ while crime is /kɹaɪm/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - è in “crème” becomes i in “crime”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38770, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crème is recorded at frequency rank #37,408, classified as anadj, pronounced /kɹɛm/. crime is at rank #1,362, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹaɪm/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 38770, this pair ranks #282,937 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of crème vs crime
Shared letters: cemr. Private to "crème": è. Private to "crime": i.
"crème" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "crime" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- crime ← ccrime · cirme · criem · crimme · crmie · crrime · rcime
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "crème" and "crime" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "crème" or "crime"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "crème" and "crime" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "crème" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crime" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #282,937 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crème" and "crime" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crème vs crewed". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #282,937 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.