crête
\kʁɛt\
The verdict
“crête” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #11,944 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #11,944
- frequency rank, French
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Excroissance charnue que les coqs et quelques autres gallinacés ont sur leur tête.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | crête |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kʁɛt\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #11,944 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “crête” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for crête is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kʁɛt\. Corpus data places it at rank #11,944 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 18 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for crête, with forms such as "ccrête", "crete", and "crrête". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Cte", "Crie", "crue", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No documented word history exists for this headword, 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 crête, spelled C-R-Ê-T-E.
Definition
- 1Excroissance charnue que les coqs et quelques autres gallinacés ont sur leur tête.
- 2Proéminence charnue sur la tête de quelques reptiles…
- 3Huppe qui orne la tête de divers oiseaux.
- 4Pièce de fer en forme de crête qui surmonte un casque ou autre coiffure semblable.
- 5Ornement en forme de crête.
- 6Ligne de points hauts d'un relief séparant deux versants opposés.
- 7Partie la plus exaltée du parti montagnard à la Convention.
- 8Terre relevée sur les bords d’un fossé qui sépare deux champs.
- 9L’ensemble des tuiles faîtières d’un toit.
- 10Le chaperon d’une muraille.
- 11Partie supérieure du glacis ou parapet du chemin couvert.
- 12Ligne de feu d’une redoute.
- 13Saillie osseuse, étroite et allongée.
- 14Éminence allongée, constituée de deux arêtes.
- 15Sorte d’axe plat et angulaire.
- 16Petite passementerie à dent comme une crête, sorte d’agrément, servant à border ou encadrer des rideaux, des sièges, etc.
- 17Tas de blé qui est dans un bateau et qui est élevé en forme pyramidale.
- 18Signe diacritique en forme d’une ligne verticale suscrite et utilisé principalement pour indiquer un ton moyen dans l’écriture de certaines langues tonales.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccrête,crete,crrête,crtêe,crêet,crêtte,cêrte,rcête
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of crête - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "crête"?
What does "crête" mean?
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Using “crête”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-R-Ê-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \kʁɛt\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Cte” - see the side-by-side comparison. crête vs Cte
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.