Which to use
“crac” is an onomatopoeia and “crus” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,255
- “crac” frequency rank
- #11,557
- “crus” frequency rank
- 53812
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crac | crus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Exprime le bruit que font certains corps, durs, secs et solides, soit en se frottant violemment, soit en éclatant. | Masculin pluriel de cru. |
Where the eye mixes crac and crus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. crac and crus follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between crac and crus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crac is \kʁak\ while crus is \kʁy\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53812, 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\. crus is at rank #11,557, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kʁy\.
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 53812, this pair ranks #138,196 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of crac vs crus
Shared letters: cr. Private to "crac": a. Private to "crus": su.
"crac" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "crus" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "crac" and "crus" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "crac" or "crus" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "crac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #138,196 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crac" and "crus" 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 #138,196 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.