chromevscrimeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#11,367
“chrome” frequency rank
#1,907
“crime” frequency rank
13274
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chrome crime
Definition Élément chimique métallique de symbole Cr et de numéro atomique 24. Infraction très grave, à la morale ou à la loi.

Where the eye mixes chrome and crime

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
chrome
5 ch
crime

Why the eye confuses chrome with crime

A purely visual mix-up. chrome (\kʁom\) and crime (\kʁim\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13274, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chrome is recorded at frequency rank #11,367, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁom\. crime is at rank #1,907, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁim\.

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 13274, this pair ranks #401,703 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chrome vs crime

Shared letters: cemr. Private to "chrome": ho. Private to "crime": i.

"chrome" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCV  ·  "crime" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chromecchrome · chhrome · chorme · chrmoe · chroem · chromme · chrrome · crhome
  • crimeccrime · cirme · criem · crimme · crmie · crrime · rcime

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chrome" for "crime" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kʁom\ versus \kʁim\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "chrome" vs "crime" - which ranks higher?
"crime" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,907 in our French list, against #11,367 for "chrome". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "chrome" and "crime" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chrome" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crime" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #401,703 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chrome" and "crime" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chrome vs croce". 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 #401,703 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