Which to use
“crac” is an onomatopoeia and “crade” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,255
- “crac” frequency rank
- #36,340
- “crade” frequency rank
- 78595
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crac | crade |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Exprime le bruit que font certains corps, durs, secs et solides, soit en se frottant violemment, soit en éclatant. | Sale. |
Where the eye mixes crac and crade
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. crac runs 4 letters (CCVC) against crade's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses crac with crade
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crac is \kʁak\ while crade is \kʁad\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (onomatopoeia vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78595, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crac is recorded at frequency rank #42,255, classified as anonomatopoeia, pronounced \kʁak\. crade is at rank #36,340, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kʁad\.
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 78595, this pair ranks #25,335 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of crac vs crade
Shared letters: acr. Private to "crac": -. Private to "crade": de.
"crac" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "crade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "crac" for "crade" ever safe?
Frequency check: "crac" vs "crade" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "crac" and "crade" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "crac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crade" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #25,335 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crac" and "crade" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crac vs croco". 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 #25,335 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.