coxvscroixTell them apart

Which to use

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

#19,493
“cox” frequency rank
#1,908
“croix” frequency rank
21401
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cox croix
Definition Variété de pommier. Intersection formée par deux éléments qui se croisent.

Where the eye mixes cox and croix

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

3 ch
cox
5 ch
croix

Why the eye confuses cox with croix

A purely visual mix-up. cox (\koks\) and croix (\kʁwa\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21401, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cox is recorded at frequency rank #19,493, classified as anoun, pronounced \koks\. croix is at rank #1,908, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁwa\.

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 21401, this pair ranks #363,342 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cox vs croix

Shared letters: cox. Private to "cox": -. Private to "croix": ir.

"cox" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "croix" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • croixccroix · corix · criox · croixx · croxi · crroix · rcoix

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cox" and "croix" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\koks\ versus \kʁwa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cox" vs "croix" - which ranks higher?
"croix" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,908 in our French list, against #19,493 for "cox". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cox" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "croix" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #363,342 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cox" and "croix" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs cox". 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 #363,342 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