Which to use
“clos” and “cross” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,433
- “clos” frequency rank
- #8,369
- “cross” frequency rank
- 13802
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clos | cross |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Espace de terre cultivé et fermé de murs ou de haies, de fossés, etc. | Sorte de course à pied hors route. |
Where the eye mixes clos and cross
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. clos runs 4 letters (CCVC) against cross's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses clos with cross
A purely visual mix-up. clos (\klo\) and cross (\kʁɔs\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13802, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clos is recorded at frequency rank #5,433, classified as anoun, pronounced \klo\. cross is at rank #8,369, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɔs\.
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 13802, this pair ranks #399,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of clos vs cross
Shared letters: cos. Private to "clos": l. Private to "cross": r.
"clos" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "cross" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "clos" and "cross" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "clos" or "cross"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "clos" and "cross" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "clos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cross" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #399,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clos" and "cross" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "croco vs cross". 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 #399,478 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.