Which to use
“chape” is a noun and “crade” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,422
- “chape” frequency rank
- #36,340
- “crade” frequency rank
- 71762
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chape | crade |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sorte de manteau long, sans plis et agrafé par devant, allant jusqu’aux talons, que portent l’évêque, le célébrant, les chantres, etc. durant l’office ; se dit aussi du grand manteau de drap ou de serge des chanoines. On nomme aussi ce vêtement un pluvial. | Sale. |
Where the eye mixes chape and crade
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. chape and crade follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between chape and crade
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chape is \ʃap\ while crade is \kʁad\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71762, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chape is recorded at frequency rank #35,422, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃap\. crade is at rank #36,340, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kʁad\.
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 71762, this pair ranks #46,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of chape vs crade
Shared letters: ace. Private to "chape": hp. Private to "crade": dr.
"chape" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "crade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "chape" for "crade" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "chape" or "crade" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "chape" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crade" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #46,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chape" and "crade" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crade vs curage". 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 #46,376 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.