Which to use
“clique” and “crique” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,969
- “clique” frequency rank
- #32,361
- “crique” frequency rank
- 42330
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clique | crique |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Coterie, bande de gens qui veulent parvenir à quelque chose d’une manière peu honnête. | Petite baie, partie du rivage qui forme dans les terres un enfoncement où de petits bateaux peuvent se mettre à l’abri. |
Where the eye mixes clique and crique
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. clique and crique follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses clique with crique
A purely visual mix-up. clique (\klik\) and crique (\kʁik\) 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 a single letter - l in “clique” becomes r in “crique”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42330, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clique is recorded at frequency rank #9,969, classified as anoun, pronounced \klik\. crique is at rank #32,361, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁik\.
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 42330, this pair ranks #226,426 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of clique vs crique
Shared letters: ceiqu. Private to "clique": l. Private to "crique": r.
"clique" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV · "crique" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "clique" for "crique" ever safe?
Frequency check: "clique" vs "crique" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "clique" and "crique" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "clique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #226,426 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clique" and "crique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crique vs criquets". 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 #226,426 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.