cravscrabeTell them apart

Quick tell: cra is a adverb, crabe is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cra” is an adverb and “crabe” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,201
“cra” frequency rank
#17,915
“crabe” frequency rank
59116
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cra crabe
Definition très Crustacé décapode, à large carapace, dont on mange la chair.

Where the eye mixes cra and crabe

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

3 ch
cra
5 ch
crabe

Visual trap between cra and crabe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cra is \kʁa\ while crabe is \kʁab\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “cra” sits inside “crabe”, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59116, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cra is recorded at frequency rank #41,201, classified as anadv, pronounced \kʁa\. crabe is at rank #17,915, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁab\.

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 59116, this pair ranks #104,984 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cra vs crabe

Shared letters: acr. Private to "cra": -. Private to "crabe": be.

"cra" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "crabe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crabecarbe · ccrabe · crabbe · craeb · crbae · crrabe · rcabe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cra" and "crabe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cra" is an adverb and "crabe" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cra" or "crabe"?
"crabe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,915 in our French list, against #41,201 for "cra". 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 "cra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crabe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,984 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cra" and "crabe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciro vs cra". 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 #104,984 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