cri
\kʁi\
The verdict
“cri” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #5,649 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,649
- frequency rank, French
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Action de crier, son perçant ou puissant émis par la voix d’un être humain ou d’un animal.
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 | cri |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kʁi\ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #5,649 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cri” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for cri is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kʁi\. Corpus data places it at rank #5,649 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
cri doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CV", "Ct", "Cs", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is cri, spelled C-R-I.
Definition
- 1Action de crier, son perçant ou puissant émis par la voix d’un être humain ou d’un animal.
- 2Action de crier, son perçant ou puissant émis par la voix d’un être humain ou d’un animal.
- 3Voix ordinaire des animaux, et particulièrement des quadrupèdes et des oiseaux.
- 4En parlant des marchands et ouvriers ambulants qui annoncent à haute voix leur genre de commerce ou d’industrie, le prix de ce qu’ils vendent, etc.
- 5Se dit également de certaines phrases brèves que l’on prononce à très haute voix, pour donner quelque avertissement, pour exprimer quelque émotion vive, etc.
- 6Les plaintes et les gémissements des personnes qui sont dans l’oppression, dans l’affliction, etc.
- 7Proclamation.
- 8Revendication, demande pressante, toute opinion manifestée hautement ; et alors il s’emploie surtout en parlant de plusieurs personnes qui s’accordent à blâmer, à désapprouver quelqu’un ou quelque chose.
- 9Se dit des mouvements intérieurs qui nous portent à faire une chose ou qui nous en détournent.
- 10Action de crier permettant au joueur de repousser et de faire tomber les autres.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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
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Using “cri”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-R-I - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \kʁi\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “CV” - see the side-by-side comparison. cri vs CV
- 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.