Which to use
“circ” and “cry” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,213
- “circ” frequency rank
- #22,822
- “cry” frequency rank
- 62035
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | circ | cry |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cirque, lieu destiné, chez les Romains, à accueillir les jeux publics | Cri. |
Where the eye mixes circ and cry
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses circ with cry
A purely visual mix-up. circ (\ˈsiɾk\) and cry (\ˈkɹaɪ\) 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 62035, 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\. cry is at rank #22,822, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɹaɪ\.
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 62035, this pair ranks #89,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of circ vs cry
Shared letters: cr. Private to "circ": i. Private to "cry": y.
"circ" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "cry" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- circ ← ccirc · circc · cirrc · cric · icrc
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "circ" and "cry" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "circ" or "cry" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "circ" and "cry" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "circ" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cry" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #89,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "circ" and "cry" 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 #89,194 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.