clésvsCrisTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,666
“clés” frequency rank
#4,743
“Cris” frequency rank
7409
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clés Cris
Definition Pluriel de clé. Nation amérindienne établie au Canada, du nord du Québec à l’Alberta, de la grande famille des Algonquiens.

Where the eye mixes clés and Cris

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

4 ch
clés
4 ch
Cris

Visual trap between clés and Cris

A purely visual mix-up. clés (\kle\) and Cris (\kʁi\) 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 7409, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clés is recorded at frequency rank #2,666, classified as anoun, pronounced \kle\. Cris is at rank #4,743, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁi\.

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 7409, this pair ranks #423,252 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of clés vs Cris

Shared letters: cs. Private to "clés": . Private to "Cris": ir.

"clés" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "Cris" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Crisccris · cirs · crris · crsi · rcis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "clés" and "Cris" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kle\ versus \kʁi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "clés" or "Cris"?
"clés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,666 in our French list, against #4,743 for "Cris". 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 "clés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Cris" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #423,252 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clés" and "Cris" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CIP vs Cris". 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 #423,252 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