causentvscreusentWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#17,649
“causent” frequency rank
#27,025
“creusent” frequency rank
44674
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature causent creusent
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe causer. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de creuser.

Where the eye mixes causent and creusent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. causent runs 7 letters (CVVCVCC) against creusent's 8 (CCVVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
causent
8 ch
creusent

Why the eye confuses causent with creusent

A purely visual mix-up. causent (\koz\) and creusent (\kʁøz\) 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 44674, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

causent is recorded at frequency rank #17,649, classified as averb, pronounced \koz\. creusent is at rank #27,025, tagged as averb, pronounced \kʁøz\.

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 44674, this pair ranks #208,680 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of causent vs creusent

Shared letters: censtu. Private to "causent": a. Private to "creusent": r.

"causent" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC  ·  "creusent" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • causentcasuent · cauesnt · causennt · causentt · causetn · causnet · caussent · ccausent
  • creusentccreusent · cerusent · cresuent · creuesnt · creusennt · creusentt · creusetn · creusnet

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "causent" and "creusent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\koz\ versus \kʁøz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "causent" or "creusent" show up more?
"causent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,649 in our French list, against #27,025 for "creusent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "causent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "creusent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #208,680 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "causent" and "creusent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crescent vs creusent". 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 #208,680 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