Which to use
“cocu” is an adjective and “crau” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,931
- “cocu” frequency rank
- #44,959
- “crau” frequency rank
- 70890
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cocu | crau |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dupé, trompé, victime d’infidélité conjugale. | Plaine semée de pierres et de galets arrondis, couverte d’une steppe propice aux activités pastorales. |
Where the eye mixes cocu and crau
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cocu (CVCV) and crau (CCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses cocu with crau
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cocu is \kɔ.ky\ while crau is \kʁo\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cocu is recorded at frequency rank #25,931, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.ky\. crau is at rank #44,959, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁo\.
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 70890, this pair ranks #49,587 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cocu vs crau
Shared letters: cu. Private to "cocu": o. Private to "crau": ar.
"cocu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "crau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cocu" for "crau" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "cocu" or "crau" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "cocu" and "crau" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cocu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #49,587 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cocu" and "crau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chah vs crau". 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 #49,587 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.