CRvscureConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#11,748
“CR” frequency rank
#7,048
“cure” frequency rank
18796
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature CR cure
Definition Compte rendu. Soin, souci. — En ce sens, il est surtout usité dans l’expression : n’avoir cure.

Where the eye mixes CR and cure

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

2 ch
CR
4 ch
cure

Visual trap between CR and cure

A purely visual mix-up. CR (\se.ɛʁ\) and cure (\kyʁ\) 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 18796, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

CR is recorded at frequency rank #11,748, classified as anoun, pronounced \se.ɛʁ\. cure is at rank #7,048, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kyʁ\.

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 18796, this pair ranks #376,535 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of CR vs cure

Shared letters: cr. Private to "CR": -. Private to "cure": eu.

"CR" · 2 letters · shape CC  ·  "cure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cureccure · cuer · curre · ucre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "CR" and "cure" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\se.ɛʁ\ versus \kyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "CR" or "cure"?
"cure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,048 in our French list, against #11,748 for "CR". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "CR" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #376,535 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "CR" and "cure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciro vs CR". 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 #376,535 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