coûtvscritWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,767
“coût” frequency rank
#32,770
“crit” frequency rank
34537
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coût crit
Definition Ce qu’une chose coûte ; son prix de revient. Cri.

Where the eye mixes coût and crit

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

4 ch
coût
4 ch
crit

Why the eye confuses coût with crit

A purely visual mix-up. coût (\ku\) and crit (\ˈkɾit\) 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 34537, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coût is recorded at frequency rank #1,767, classified as anoun, pronounced \ku\. crit is at rank #32,770, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɾit\.

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 34537, this pair ranks #283,118 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coût vs crit

Shared letters: ct. Private to "coût": . Private to "crit": ir.

"coût" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "crit" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • critccrit · cirt · critt · crrit · crti · rcit

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "coût" for "crit" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ku\ versus \ˈkɾit\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "coût" vs "crit" - which ranks higher?
"coût" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,767 in our French list, against #32,770 for "crit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "coût" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #283,118 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coût" and "crit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CIP vs crit". 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 #283,118 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