craie

\kʁɛ\

/\kʁɛ\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“craie” has 5 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #20,105. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#20,105
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
5
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Roche biogène de couleur blanche, constituée presque exclusivement de carbonate de calcium provenant essentiellement des débris de l’exosquelette de microorganismes planctoniques vivants au Crétacé.

Corpus desk

Index FR-craie · craie · French

craie · rank #20,105 · 5 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #20,105
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 5 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH couturier

Nearest frequency peer: couturier (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « craie »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « craie » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

craie vs cri
60% similar
craie vs Cré
20% similar
craie vs crée
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for craie
PropertyValue
Headwordcraie
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kʁɛ\
Letters5
Frequency rank#20,105
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « craie »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).craiese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « couturier » (#20,104), « crasse » (#20,106), « coussins » (#20,103). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « craie » est au #20,105. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 5 spelling variants around craie (IPA \kʁɛ\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #20,105 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for craie, with forms such as "ccraie", "craei", and "criae". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cri", "Cré", "crée", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is craie, spelled C-R-A-I-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Roche biogène de couleur blanche, constituée presque exclusivement de carbonate de calcium provenant essentiellement des débris de l’exosquelette de microorganismes planctoniques vivants au Crétacé.
  2. 2
    Morceau de calcaire taillé en bâtonnet et utilisé pour écrire sur un tableau noir.
  3. 3
    Cube bleu que l’on applique sur le procédé de la queue afin d’éviter les frottements.
  4. 4
    Petite blancheur qui apparaît sur la peau de certains fruits (mirabelle, quetsche, raisin, etc.) ; pruine.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how craie appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Le passage du crétacé inférieur à la craie se voit bien quand on traverse le Vallage, de Vouziers à Tourcelles-Chaumont par exemple.
  2. Les phosphates arénacés, ou sables phosphatés, se rencontrent dans des poches à la partie supérieure de la craie à bélemnites, sur la limite des départements de la Somme et du Pas-de-Calais.

This word in other languages

chalk(English)creta(Español)Kreide(Deutsch)giz(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ccraie
  • craei
  • criae
  • crraie
  • rcaie

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of craie - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

ccraie1craei2criae2crraie1rcaie2
Edit distance from "craie"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "craie"?
"craie" is spelled C-R-A-I-E. The IPA pronunciation is \kʁɛ\.
What does "craie" mean?
As a noun, "craie" means: Roche biogène de couleur blanche, constituée presque exclusivement de carbonate de calcium provenant essentiellement des débris de l’exosquelette de microorganismes planctoniques vivants au Crétacé.
What words are commonly confused with "craie"?
"craie" is commonly confused with "cri", "Cré", "crée". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "craie"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "craie" is \kʁɛ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "craie" come from?
"craie" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "craie", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

daddy#20,110dises#20,115causa#20,078Fiona#20,141

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).

floue5 variantsJeep5 variantskara5 variantsUtah5 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list