cariesvscriéeConfusable pair

Which to use

“caries” and “criée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#38,190
“caries” frequency rank
#37,260
“criée” frequency rank
75450
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caries criée
Definition Pluriel de carie. Proclamation pour annoncer la vente des biens en justice.

Where the eye mixes caries and criée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. caries runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against criée's 5 (CCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
caries
5 ch
criée

Visual trap between caries and criée

A purely visual mix-up. caries (\ka.ʁi\) and criée (\kʁi.je\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75450, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caries is recorded at frequency rank #38,190, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁi\. criée is at rank #37,260, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁi.je\.

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 75450, this pair ranks #34,072 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caries vs criée

Shared letters: ceir. Private to "caries": as. Private to "criée": é.

"caries" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "criée" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caries ← acries · caires · careis · cariess · carise · carries · ccaries · craies

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "caries" and "criée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ka.ʁi\ versus \kʁi.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "caries" or "criée"?
"criée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,260 in our French list, against #38,190 for "caries". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "caries" and "criée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caries" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "criée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,072 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caries" and "criée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caries vs carrez". 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 #34,072 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list