clonevscrâneTell them apart

Which to use

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

#19,481
“clone” frequency rank
#4,659
“crâne” frequency rank
24140
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clone crâne
Definition Ensemble des êtres vivants issus, par voie asexuée, d’un seul individu et possédant son patrimoine génétique. Assemblage des os de la tête, partie du squelette destinée à protéger l’encéphale.

Where the eye mixes clone and crâne

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
clone
5 ch
crâne

Visual trap between clone and crâne

A purely visual mix-up. clone (\klon\) and crâne (\kʁɑn\) 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 24140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clone is recorded at frequency rank #19,481, classified as anoun, pronounced \klon\. crâne is at rank #4,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɑn\.

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 24140, this pair ranks #348,352 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of clone vs crâne

Shared letters: cen. Private to "clone": lo. Private to "crâne": .

"clone" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "crâne" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clonecclone · cllone · clnoe · cloen · clonne · colne · lcone

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "clone" and "crâne" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\klon\ versus \kʁɑn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "clone" vs "crâne" - which ranks higher?
"crâne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,659 in our French list, against #19,481 for "clone". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "clone" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crâne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #348,352 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clone" and "crâne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clone vs conde". 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 #348,352 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