copvscriTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,394
“cop” frequency rank
#5,649
“cri” frequency rank
23043
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cop cri
Definition Bouteille de bière d'une contenance de 0,66 litre. (Essentiellement en Côte-d'Ivoire) Action de crier, son perçant ou puissant émis par la voix d’un être humain ou d’un animal.

Where the eye mixes cop and cri

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
cop
3 ch
cri

Look-alike desk: cop vs cri

A purely visual mix-up. cop (\kɔp\) and cri (\kʁi\) 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 23043, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cop is recorded at frequency rank #17,394, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔp\. cri is at rank #5,649, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁi\.

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 23043, this pair ranks #354,686 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cop vs cri

Shared letters: c. Private to "cop": op. Private to "cri": ir.

"cop" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "cri" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cop" and "cri" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔp\ versus \kʁi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cop" or "cri"?
"cri" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,649 in our French list, against #17,394 for "cop". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cop" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cri" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #354,686 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cop" and "cri" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cop vs coupa". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #354,686 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