crux

\kʁyks\

/\kʁyks\/ noun

The verdict

“crux” is uncommon French (frequency #93,648 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#93,648
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Passage-clé, séquence de mouvements la plus difficile ou la plus aléatoire d'une voie d’escalade.

Corpus desk

Index FR-crux · crux · French

crux · rank #93,648 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #93,648
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH créerai

Nearest frequency peer: créerai (+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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « crux »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « crux » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for crux
PropertyValue
Headwordcrux
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kʁyks\
Letters4
Frequency rank#93,648
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « crux » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.cruxtombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « créerai » (#93,649), « crénelé » (#93,650), « crater » (#93,644). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « crux » est au #93,648. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

crux is uncommon French at frequency #93,648 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kʁyks\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Passage-clé, séquence de mouvements la plus difficile ou la plus aléatoire d'une voie d’escalade.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for crux, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, 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 crux, spelled C-R-U-X.

Definition

  1. 1
    Passage-clé, séquence de mouvements la plus difficile ou la plus aléatoire d'une voie d’escalade.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Rikar Otegui escalada « onsight » le crux de la voie – une dalle horizontale –, en l’assurant à l’aide de coinceurs.

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 "crux"?
"crux" is spelled C-R-U-X. The IPA pronunciation is \kʁyks\.
What does "crux" mean?
As a noun, "crux" means: Passage-clé, séquence de mouvements la plus difficile ou la plus aléatoire d'une voie d’escalade.
How do you pronounce "crux"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "crux" is \kʁyks\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "crux" come from?
"crux" 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 "crux", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list