crackvskrachWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#11,942
“crack” frequency rank
#35,116
“krach” frequency rank
47058
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crack krach
Definition Cheval de course performant ayant remporté de nombreuses victoires. Désastre boursier, chute soudaine de la bourse.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set crack and krach apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
crack
5 ch
krach

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

This is the hard kind. crack and krach are pronounced identically (\kʁak\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47058, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crack is recorded at frequency rank #11,942, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁak\. krach is at rank #35,116, tagged as anoun, 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 47058, this pair ranks #189,984 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crack vs krach

Shared letters: ackr. Private to "crack": -. Private to "krach": h.

"crack" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "krach" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crackcarck · ccrack · cracck · crackk · crakc · crcak · crrack · rcack
  • krachkarch · kkrach · kracch · krachh · krahc · krcah · krrach · rkach

Frequency comparison

crack#11,942
krach#35,116

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crack" and "krach" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\kʁak\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "crack" or "krach"?
"crack" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,942 in our French list, against #35,116 for "krach". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering crack vs krach

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “crack” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list