crétacé

\kʁe.ta.se\

/\kʁe.ta.se\/ adj

The verdict

“crétacé” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #29,716. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#29,716
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est ou qui tient de la nature de la craie.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cretace · crétacé · French

crétacé · rank #29,716 · 11 variants · 3 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #29,716
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH couvrez

Nearest frequency peer: couvrez (-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 « crétacé »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « crétacé » 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).

crétacé vs crête
43% similar
crétacé vs créance
57% similar
crétacé vs cétacés
71% similar

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

Key facts for crétacé
PropertyValue
Headwordcrétacé
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\kʁe.ta.se\
Letters7
Frequency rank#29,716
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « crétacé »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).crétacése 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 « couvrez » (#29,715), « côlon » (#29,717), « Cotonou » (#29,713). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « crétacé » est au #29,716. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around crétacé (IPA \kʁe.ta.se\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #29,716 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for crétacé, with forms such as "ccrétacé", "cretace", and "crrétacé". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "crête", "créance", "cétacés", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is crétacé, spelled C-R-É-T-A-C-É.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est ou qui tient de la nature de la craie.
  2. 2
    Qui concerne le Crétacé.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Les lieux qui forment le département des Ardennes, considérés géologiquement, sont constitués par le terrain ardoisier au nord, le terrain calcaire jurassique au milieu, le terrain crétacé au midi.
  2. J’ai d’abord démontré, pour les environs de Chambéry, que les calcaires blancs sublithographiques, sur lesquels reposent ces marnes, renfermaient la même faune qu’elles, et, comme les marnes de Berrias étaient alors considérées comme crétacées, j’ai placé le tout dans le crétacé, tout en considérant cet ensemble comme équivalent dans le temps aux marno-ca…

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ccrétacé
  • cretace
  • crrétacé
  • crtéacé
  • créatcé
  • crétaccé
  • crétaéc
  • crétcaé
  • créttacé
  • cértacé
  • rcétacé

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of crétacé - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

ccrétacé1cretace2crrétacé1crtéacé2créatcé2crétaccé1crétaéc2crétcaé2
Edit distance from "crétacé"

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 "crétacé"?
"crétacé" is spelled C-R-É-T-A-C-É. The IPA pronunciation is \kʁe.ta.se\.
What does "crétacé" mean?
As an adjective, "crétacé" means: Qui est ou qui tient de la nature de la craie.
What words are commonly confused with "crétacé"?
"crétacé" is commonly confused with "crête", "créance", "cétacés". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "crétacé"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "crétacé" is \kʁe.ta.se\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "crétacé" come from?
"crétacé" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "crétacé", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list