crabevscransWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#17,915
“crabe” frequency rank
#41,202
“crans” frequency rank
59117
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crabe crans
Definition Crustacé décapode, à large carapace, dont on mange la chair. Pluriel de cran.

Where the eye mixes crabe and crans

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. crabe (CCVCV) and crans (CCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
crabe
5 ch
crans

Look-alike desk: crabe vs crans

A purely visual mix-up. crabe (\kʁab\) and crans (\kʁɑ̃\) 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 59117, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crabe is recorded at frequency rank #17,915, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁab\. crans is at rank #41,202, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɑ̃\.

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 59117, this pair ranks #104,979 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of crabe vs crans

Shared letters: acr. Private to "crabe": be. Private to "crans": ns.

"crabe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "crans" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crabe ← carbe · ccrabe · crabbe · craeb · crbae · crrabe · rcabe
  • crans ← carns · ccrans · cranns · cranss · crasn · crnas · crrans · rcans

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "crabe" for "crans" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kʁab\ versus \kʁɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "crabe" vs "crans" - which ranks higher?
"crabe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,915 in our French list, against #41,202 for "crans". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "crabe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,979 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crabe" and "crans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCAS vs crans". 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 #104,979 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