Which to use
“cloître” is a noun and “croire” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,235
- “cloître” frequency rank
- #579
- “croire” frequency rank
- 19814
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cloître | croire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie d’un monastère qu’une clôture sépare du reste du bâtiment. | Tenir pour véritable. |
Where the eye mixes cloître and croire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cloître with croire
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cloître is \klwatʁ\ while croire is \kʁwaʁ\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19814, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cloître is recorded at frequency rank #19,235, classified as anoun, pronounced \klwatʁ\. croire is at rank #579, tagged as averb, pronounced \kʁwaʁ\.
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 19814, this pair ranks #371,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cloître vs croire
Shared letters: ceor. Private to "cloître": ltî. Private to "croire": i.
"cloître" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCV · "croire" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- croire ← ccroire · corire · criore · croier · croirre · crorie · crroire · rcoire
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cloître" for "croire" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "cloître" or "croire" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cloître" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "croire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #371,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cloître" and "croire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "croire vs croirez". 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 #371,407 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.