comavscraWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: coma is a noun, cra is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“coma” is a noun and “cra” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,824
“coma” frequency rank
#41,201
“cra” frequency rank
50025
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coma cra
Definition État somnolent avec abolition de la sensibilité et du mouvement volontaire. très

Where the eye mixes coma and cra

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
coma
3 ch
cra

Why the eye confuses coma with cra

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coma is \kɔ.ma\ while cra is \kʁa\. 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 adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50025, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coma is recorded at frequency rank #8,824, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.ma\. cra is at rank #41,201, tagged as anadv, pronounced \kʁa\.

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 50025, this pair ranks #165,886 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coma vs cra

Shared letters: ac. Private to "coma": mo. Private to "cra": r.

"coma" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cra" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • comaccoma · cmoa · coam · comma · ocma

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "coma" for "cra" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "coma" is a noun and "cra" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "coma" vs "cra" - which ranks higher?
"coma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,824 in our French list, against #41,201 for "cra". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #165,886 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coma" and "cra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciro vs cra". 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 #165,886 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