clémentvscrèventTell them apart

Quick tell: clément is a adjective, crèvent is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“clément” is an adjective and “crèvent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,434
“clément” frequency rank
#31,909
“crèvent” frequency rank
37343
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clément crèvent
Definition Qui pratique la clémence. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de crever.

Where the eye mixes clément and crèvent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. clément and crèvent follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
clément
7 ch
crèvent

Why the eye confuses clément with crèvent

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: clément is \kle.mɑ̃\ while crèvent is \kʁɛv\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37343, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clément is recorded at frequency rank #5,434, classified as anadj, pronounced \kle.mɑ̃\. crèvent is at rank #31,909, tagged as averb, pronounced \kʁɛv\.

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 37343, this pair ranks #263,129 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of clément vs crèvent

Shared letters: cent. Private to "clément": lmé. Private to "crèvent": rvè.

"clément" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC  ·  "crèvent" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "clément" and "crèvent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "clément" is an adjective and "crèvent" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "clément" or "crèvent"?
"clément" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,434 in our French list, against #31,909 for "crèvent". 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 "clément" and "crèvent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "clément" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crèvent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #263,129 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clément" and "crèvent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crescent vs crèvent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #263,129 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