Which to use
“crac” is an onomatopoeia and “craquent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,255
- “crac” frequency rank
- #41,204
- “craquent” frequency rank
- 83459
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crac | craquent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Exprime le bruit que font certains corps, durs, secs et solides, soit en se frottant violemment, soit en éclatant. | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de craquer. |
Same sound, different letters: crac vs craquent
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. crac runs 4 letters (CCVC) against craquent's 8 (CCVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: crac vs craquent
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: crac and craquent carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kʁak\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anonomatopoeia, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 4 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83459, 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\. craquent is at rank #41,204, tagged as averb, pronounced \kʁak\.
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 83459, this pair ranks #14,793 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of crac vs craquent
Shared letters: acr. Private to "crac": -. Private to "craquent": enqtu.
"crac" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "craquent" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "crac" and "craquent" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "crac" or "craquent"?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "crac" / "craquent". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "crac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "craquent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #14,793 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crac" and "craquent" 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 #14,793 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.