cimes vs crimes, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#37,727
“cimes” frequency rank: #2,916
“crimes” frequency rank: 40643
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cimes	crimes
Definition	Pluriel de cime.	Pluriel de crime.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cimes and crimes apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

cimes

6 ch

crimes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. cimes (\sim\) and crimes (\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 40643, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cimes is recorded at frequency rank #37,727, classified as anoun, pronounced \sim\. crimes is at rank #2,916, 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 40643, this pair ranks #239,034 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cimes vs crimes

Shared letters: ceims. Private to "cimes": -. Private to "crimes": r.

"cimes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "crimes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

cimes ← ccimes · ciems · cimess · cimmes · cimse · cmies · icmes
crimes ← ccrimes · cirmes · criems · crimess · crimmes · crimse · crmies · crrimes

Frequency comparison

cimes#37,727

crimes#2,916

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cimes" and "crimes" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\sim\ versus \kʁim\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "cimes" or "crimes"?

"crimes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,916 in our French list, against #37,727 for "cimes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering cimes vs crimes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cimes” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable