corkvscroWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#46,088
“cork” frequency rank
#33,629
“cro” frequency rank
79717
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cork cro
Definition Saut composé d'une rotation faisant passer la planche par dessus la tête. (Toronto) Camarade.

Where the eye mixes cork and cro

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

4 ch
cork
3 ch
cro

Look-alike desk: cork vs cro

A purely visual mix-up. cork (\kɔʁk\) and cro (\kɹəʊ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79717, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cork is recorded at frequency rank #46,088, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁk\. cro is at rank #33,629, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɹəʊ\.

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 79717, this pair ranks #22,665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cork vs cro

Shared letters: cor. Private to "cork": k. Private to "cro": -.

"cork" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "cro" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • corkccork · cokr · corkk · corrk · crok · ocrk

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cork" and "cro" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔʁk\ versus \kɹəʊ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cork" vs "cro" - which ranks higher?
"cro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,629 in our French list, against #46,088 for "cork". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "cork" and "cro" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cork" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cork" and "cro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciro vs cork". 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 #22,665 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