carafevscradeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: carafe is a noun, crade is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“carafe” is a noun and “crade” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,851
“carafe” frequency rank
#36,340
“crade” frequency rank
72191
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carafe crade
Definition Sorte de bouteille de verre ou de cristal, avec ou sans bouchon, plus large par le bas que par le haut, qui sert principalement à contenir l’eau et quelquefois le vin ou les liqueurs que l’on sert à table. Sale.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set carafe and crade apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
carafe
5 ch
crade

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: carafe is \ka.ʁaf\ while crade is \kʁad\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72191, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carafe is recorded at frequency rank #35,851, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁaf\. crade is at rank #36,340, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kʁad\.

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 72191, this pair ranks #44,879 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of carafe vs crade

Shared letters: acer. Private to "carafe": f. Private to "crade": d.

"carafe" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "crade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carafeacrafe · caarfe · caraef · caraffe · carfae · carrafe · ccarafe · craafe
  • cradeccrade · cradde · craed · crdae · crrade · rcade

Frequency comparison

carafe#35,851
crade#36,340

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "carafe" and "crade" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "carafe" is a noun and "crade" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "carafe" or "crade"?
"carafe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,851 in our French list, against #36,340 for "crade". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering carafe vs crade

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “carafe”; for an adjective, it's “crade”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “carafe” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list