Which to use
“crac” is an onomatopoeia and “crow” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,255
- “crac” frequency rank
- #34,485
- “crow” frequency rank
- 76740
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crac | crow |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Exprime le bruit que font certains corps, durs, secs et solides, soit en se frottant violemment, soit en éclatant. | Corneille. |
Where the eye mixes crac and crow
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. crac and crow follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses crac with crow
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crac is \kʁak\ while crow is \kɹəʊ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (onomatopoeia vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76740, 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\. crow is at rank #34,485, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɹəʊ\.
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 76740, this pair ranks #30,288 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of crac vs crow
Shared letters: cr. Private to "crac": a. Private to "crow": ow.
"crac" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "crow" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "crac" for "crow" ever safe?
Frequency check: "crac" vs "crow" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "crac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crow" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #30,288 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crac" and "crow" 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 #30,288 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.