Which to use
“craie” and “criée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,105
- “craie” frequency rank
- #37,260
- “criée” frequency rank
- 57365
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | craie | criée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Roche biogène de couleur blanche, constituée presque exclusivement de carbonate de calcium provenant essentiellement des débris de l’exosquelette de microorganismes planctoniques vivants au Crétacé. | Proclamation pour annoncer la vente des biens en justice. |
Where the eye mixes craie and criée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. craie and criée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses craie with criée
A purely visual mix-up. craie (\kʁɛ\) and criée (\kʁi.je\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57365, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
craie is recorded at frequency rank #20,105, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁɛ\. criée is at rank #37,260, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁi.je\.
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 57365, this pair ranks #115,466 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of craie vs criée
Shared letters: ceir. Private to "craie": a. Private to "criée": é.
"craie" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV · "criée" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- craie ← ccraie · craei · criae · crraie · rcaie
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "craie" and "criée" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "craie" or "criée"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "craie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "criée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #115,466 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "craie" and "criée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "calée vs criée". 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 #115,466 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.