corvscruWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cor is a noun, cru is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cor” is a noun and “cru” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,000
“cor” frequency rank
#1,326
“cru” frequency rank
15326
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cor cru
Definition (toujours employé au pluriel) Andouiller. Qui n’est pas cuit.

Where the eye mixes cor and cru

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

3 ch
cor
3 ch
cru

Visual trap between cor and cru

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cor is \kɔʁ\ while cru is \kʁy\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15326, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cor is recorded at frequency rank #14,000, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁ\. cru is at rank #1,326, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kʁy\.

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 15326, this pair ranks #392,836 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cor vs cru

Shared letters: cr. Private to "cor": o. Private to "cru": u.

"cor" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "cru" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cor" for "cru" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cor" is a noun and "cru" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cor" vs "cru" - which ranks higher?
"cru" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,326 in our French list, against #14,000 for "cor". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "cor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cru" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #392,836 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cor" and "cru" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciro vs cor". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #392,836 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