cossevscriseConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#33,195
“cosse” frequency rank
#1,109
“crise” frequency rank
34304
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cosse crise
Definition Enveloppe de la graine, gousse, écorce. Changement en bien ou en mal qui survient dans le cours d’une maladie et s’annonce par quelques phénomènes particuliers, comme une excrétion abondante, une hémorragie considérable, des sueurs, un dépôt dans les urines, etc.

Where the eye mixes cosse and crise

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cosse
5 ch
crise

Visual trap between cosse and crise

A purely visual mix-up. cosse (\kɔs\) and crise (\kʁiz\) 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 34304, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cosse is recorded at frequency rank #33,195, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔs\. crise is at rank #1,109, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁiz\.

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 34304, this pair ranks #284,754 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cosse vs crise

Shared letters: ces. Private to "cosse": o. Private to "crise": ir.

"cosse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "crise" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cosseccosse · cose · coses · csose · ocsse
  • criseccrise · cirse · crrise · crsie · rcise

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cosse" and "crise" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔs\ versus \kʁiz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cosse" or "crise"?
"crise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,109 in our French list, against #33,195 for "cosse". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cosse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #284,754 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cosse" and "crise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs cosse". 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 #284,754 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