celivscriTell them apart

Quick tell: celi is a pronoun, cri is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“celi” is a pronoun and “cri” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,778
“celi” frequency rank
#5,649
“cri” frequency rank
53427
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature celi cri
Definition Celui. Action de crier, son perçant ou puissant émis par la voix d’un être humain ou d’un animal.

Letter map: celi vs cri

Shared letters muted; letters that set celi and cri apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
celi
3 ch
cri

Grammar separator: celi vs cri

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: celi is apronoun and crianoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53427, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

celi is recorded at frequency rank #47,778, classified as apron. cri is at rank #5,649, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁi\.

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 53427, this pair ranks #140,806 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of celi vs cri

Shared letters: ci. Private to "celi": el. Private to "cri": r.

"celi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cri" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • celicceli · celli · clei · ecli

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "celi" and "cri" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "celi" is a pronoun and "cri" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "celi" or "cri" show up more?
"cri" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,649 in our French list, against #47,778 for "celi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "celi" and "cri".

  • Full dictionary entry for "celi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cri" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #140,806 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "celi" and "cri" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "celi vs cese". 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 #140,806 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