chassesvscrossesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#20,953
“chasses” frequency rank
#47,268
“crosses” frequency rank
68221
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chasses crosses
Definition Pluriel de chasse. Pluriel de crosse.

Where the eye mixes chasses and crosses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. chasses and crosses follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
chasses
7 ch
crosses

Why the eye confuses chasses with crosses

A purely visual mix-up. chasses (\ʃas\) and crosses (\kʁɔs\) 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 68221, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chasses is recorded at frequency rank #20,953, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃas\. crosses is at rank #47,268, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɔs\.

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 68221, this pair ranks #60,042 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chasses vs crosses

Shared letters: ces. Private to "chasses": ah. Private to "crosses": or.

"chasses" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "crosses" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chasses ← cahsses · cchasses · chasess · chassess · chassse · chhasses · chsases · hcasses
  • crosses ← ccrosses · corsses · crosess · crossess · crossse · crrosses · crsoses · rcosses

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chasses" and "crosses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʃas\ versus \kʁɔs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "chasses" or "crosses"?
"chasses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,953 in our French list, against #47,268 for "crosses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chasses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crosses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,042 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chasses" and "crosses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "causses vs crosses". 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 #60,042 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