circvscroWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#39,213
“circ” frequency rank
#33,629
“cro” frequency rank
72842
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature circ cro
Definition Cirque, lieu destiné, chez les Romains, à accueillir les jeux publics (Toronto) Camarade.

Where the eye mixes circ and cro

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
circ
3 ch
cro

Visual trap between circ and cro

A purely visual mix-up. circ (\ˈsiɾk\) and cro (\kɹəʊ\) 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 72842, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

circ is recorded at frequency rank #39,213, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈsiɾk\. cro is at rank #33,629, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɹəʊ\.

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 72842, this pair ranks #42,577 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of circ vs cro

Shared letters: cr. Private to "circ": i. Private to "cro": o.

"circ" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "cro" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • circccirc · circc · cirrc · cric · icrc

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "circ" for "cro" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈsiɾk\ versus \kɹəʊ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "circ" or "cro"?
"cro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,629 in our French list, against #39,213 for "circ". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "circ" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,577 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "circ" and "cro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "circ vs ciro". 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 #42,577 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