ClèvesvscrevéWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Clèves is a name, crevé is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Clèves” is a name and “crevé” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,221
“Clèves” frequency rank
#13,763
“crevé” frequency rank
52984
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Clèves crevé
Definition Ville d’Allemagne, située dans la Rhénanie-du-Nord-Westphalie. Mort.

Where the eye mixes Clèves and crevé

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

6 ch
Clèves
5 ch
crevé

Visual trap between Clèves and crevé

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Clèves is \klɛv\ while crevé is \kʁə.ve\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52984, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Clèves is recorded at frequency rank #39,221, classified as aname, pronounced \klɛv\. crevé is at rank #13,763, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kʁə.ve\.

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 52984, this pair ranks #143,901 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Clèves vs crevé

Shared letters: cev. Private to "Clèves": lsè. Private to "crevé": .

"Clèves" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "crevé" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Clèves" and "crevé" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Clèves" is a name and "crevé" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Clèves" or "crevé"?
"crevé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,763 in our French list, against #39,221 for "Clèves". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Clèves" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crevé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #143,901 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Clèves" and "crevé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clavel vs Clèves". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #143,901 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