cassisvscrisisWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#25,242
“cassis” frequency rank
#36,787
“crisis” frequency rank
62029
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cassis crisis
Definition Arbrisseau produisant le fruit du même nom, de nom scientifique Ribes nigrum. Crise.

Where the eye mixes cassis and crisis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
cassis
6 ch
crisis

Why the eye confuses cassis with crisis

A purely visual mix-up. cassis (\ka.sis\) and crisis (\ˈkɹaɪ.sɪs\) 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 62029, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cassis is recorded at frequency rank #25,242, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.sis\. crisis is at rank #36,787, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɹaɪ.sɪs\.

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 62029, this pair ranks #89,217 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cassis vs crisis

Shared letters: cis. Private to "cassis": a. Private to "crisis": r.

"cassis" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "crisis" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cassisacssis · casis · casiss · cassiss · casssi · ccassis · csasis
  • crisisccrisis · cirsis · criiss · crisiss · crissi · crissis · crrisis · crsiis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cassis" and "crisis" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ka.sis\ versus \ˈkɹaɪ.sɪs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cassis" vs "crisis" - which ranks higher?
"cassis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,242 in our French list, against #36,787 for "crisis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cassis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crisis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #89,217 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cassis" and "crisis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crisis vs criss". 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 #89,217 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