Which to use
“carte” and “crête” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #716
- “carte” frequency rank
- #11,944
- “crête” frequency rank
- 12660
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | carte | crête |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Représentation géométrique conventionnelle, en positions relatives, de phénomènes concrets ou abstraits (pays, région, ville, astres dans le ciel, etc.), localisables dans l’espace, à échelle réduite. | Excroissance charnue que les coqs et quelques autres gallinacés ont sur leur tête. |
Where the eye mixes carte and crête
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. carte (CVCCV) and crête (CCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between carte and crête
A purely visual mix-up. carte (\kaʁt\) and crête (\kʁɛt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12660, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
carte is recorded at frequency rank #716, classified as anoun, pronounced \kaʁt\. crête is at rank #11,944, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɛt\.
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 12660, this pair ranks #404,342 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of carte vs crête
Shared letters: cert. Private to "carte": a. Private to "crête": ê.
"carte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "crête" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- carte ← acrte · caret · carrte · cartte · catre · ccarte · crate
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "carte" for "crête" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "carte" or "crête" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "carte" and "crête" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "carte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crête" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #404,342 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "carte" and "crête" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cese vs crête". 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 #404,342 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.