chipsvscrissWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#11,366
“chips” frequency rank
#41,207
“criss” frequency rank
52573
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chips criss
Definition Très fine tranche de pommes de terre frite dans l’huile, saupoudrée légèrement de sel ou assaisonnée. Poignard dont la lame est parfois en zigzag à l’usage des Malais.

Where the eye mixes chips and criss

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
chips
5 ch
criss

Visual trap between chips and criss

A purely visual mix-up. chips (\ʃips\) and criss (\kʁis\) 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 52573, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chips is recorded at frequency rank #11,366, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃips\. criss is at rank #41,207, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁis\.

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 52573, this pair ranks #146,775 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chips vs criss

Shared letters: cis. Private to "chips": hp. Private to "criss": r.

"chips" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "criss" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chipscchips · chhips · chipps · chipss · chisp · chpis · cihps · hcips
  • crissccriss · cirss · crriss · crsis · rciss

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chips" and "criss" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʃips\ versus \kʁis\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "chips" vs "criss" - which ranks higher?
"chips" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,366 in our French list, against #41,207 for "criss". 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 "chips" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "criss" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #146,775 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chips" and "criss" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caïds vs criss". 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 #146,775 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