Which to use
“chat” and “crau” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,433
- “chat” frequency rank
- #44,959
- “crau” frequency rank
- 46392
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chat | crau |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mammifère carnivore félin de taille moyenne, au museau court et arrondi, domestiqué, apprivoisé ou encore à l’état sauvage. | Plaine semée de pierres et de galets arrondis, couverte d’une steppe propice aux activités pastorales. |
Where the eye mixes chat and crau
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: chat vs crau
A purely visual mix-up. chat (\ʃa\) and crau (\kʁo\) 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 46392, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chat is recorded at frequency rank #1,433, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃa\. crau is at rank #44,959, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁo\.
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 46392, this pair ranks #195,327 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of chat vs crau
Shared letters: ac. Private to "chat": ht. Private to "crau": ru.
"chat" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "crau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "chat" and "crau" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "chat" or "crau" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "chat" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #195,327 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chat" and "crau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chah vs crau". 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 #195,327 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.