citervscrierConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,596
“citer” frequency rank
#4,478
“crier” frequency rank
8074
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature citer crier
Definition Assigner à comparaître devant une juridiction civile ou religieuse. Jeter un ou plusieurs cris.

Where the eye mixes citer and crier

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

5 ch
citer
5 ch
crier

Look-alike desk: citer vs crier

A purely visual mix-up. citer (\si.te\) and crier (\kʁi.je\) 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 8074, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

citer is recorded at frequency rank #3,596, classified as averb, pronounced \si.te\. crier is at rank #4,478, tagged as averb, pronounced \kʁi.je\.

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 8074, this pair ranks #421,222 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of citer vs crier

Shared letters: ceir. Private to "citer": t. Private to "crier": -.

"citer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "crier" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • citercciter · cietr · citerr · citre · citter · ctier · icter
  • crierccrier · creir · crierr · crire · crrier · rcier

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "citer" for "crier" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\si.te\ versus \kʁi.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "citer" vs "crier" - which ranks higher?
"citer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,596 in our French list, against #4,478 for "crier". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "citer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #421,222 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "citer" and "crier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crier vs cruiser". 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 #421,222 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