Which to use
“cœur” is a noun and “crus” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #552
- “cœur” frequency rank
- #11,557
- “crus” frequency rank
- 12109
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cœur | crus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Organe musculaire, creux et pulsatile assurant la circulation sanguine dans le corps humain ou animal. | Masculin pluriel de cru. |
Where the eye mixes cœur and crus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cœur (CVVC) and crus (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses cœur with crus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cœur is \kœʁ\ while crus is \kʁy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12109, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cœur is recorded at frequency rank #552, classified as anoun, pronounced \kœʁ\. crus is at rank #11,557, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kʁy\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 12109, this pair ranks #406,543 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cœur vs crus
Shared letters: cru. Private to "cœur": œ. Private to "crus": s.
"cœur" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "crus" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- crus ← ccrus · crrus · crsu · cruss · curs · rcus
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cœur" for "crus" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "cœur" or "crus" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cœur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #406,543 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cœur" and "crus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "casus vs crus". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #406,543 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.