cradevscréeConfusable pair

Quick tell: crade is a adjective, crée is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“crade” is an adjective and “crée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,340
“crade” frequency rank
#2,272
“crée” frequency rank
38612
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crade crée
Definition Sale. Sorte de toile.

Where the eye mixes crade and crée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
crade
4 ch
crée

Why the eye confuses crade with crée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crade is \kʁad\ while crée is \kʁe.ə\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38612, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crade is recorded at frequency rank #36,340, classified as anadj, pronounced \kʁad\. crée is at rank #2,272, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁe.ə\.

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 38612, this pair ranks #254,048 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crade vs crée

Shared letters: cer. Private to "crade": ad. Private to "crée": é.

"crade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "crée" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cradeccrade · cradde · craed · crdae · crrade · rcade

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "crade" for "crée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "crade" is an adjective and "crée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "crade" vs "crée" - which ranks higher?
"crée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,272 in our French list, against #36,340 for "crade". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "crade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #254,048 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crade" and "crée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crade vs curage". 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 #254,048 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list