Which to use
“comble” and “crible” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,166
- “comble” frequency rank
- #27,390
- “crible” frequency rank
- 34556
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | comble | crible |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Faîte ; couronnement d’un édifice. | Instrument percé d’un grand nombre de trous qui sert à trier des objets de grosseur ou de qualité inégales, en laissant passer les uns et en repoussant les autres. |
Where the eye mixes comble and crible
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: comble vs crible
A purely visual mix-up. comble (\kɔ̃bl\) and crible (\kʁibl\) 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 34556, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
comble is recorded at frequency rank #7,166, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃bl\. crible is at rank #27,390, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁibl\.
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 34556, this pair ranks #282,965 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of comble vs crible
Shared letters: bcel. Private to "comble": mo. Private to "crible": ir.
"comble" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "crible" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "comble" and "crible" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "comble" or "crible" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "comble" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crible" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #282,965 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "comble" and "crible" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crible vs crisse". 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 #282,965 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.