craintvscranWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: craint is a verb, cran is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“craint” is a verb and “cran” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,477
“craint” frequency rank
#10,304
“cran” frequency rank
14781
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature craint cran
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de craindre. Entaille qu’on fait à un corps dur pour accrocher ou arrêter quelque chose.

Where the eye mixes craint and cran

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. craint runs 6 letters (CCVVCC) against cran's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
craint
4 ch
cran

Visual trap between craint and cran

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: craint is \kʁɛ̃\ while cran is \kʁɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14781, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

craint is recorded at frequency rank #4,477, classified as averb, pronounced \kʁɛ̃\. cran is at rank #10,304, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɑ̃\.

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 14781, this pair ranks #395,261 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of craint vs cran

Shared letters: acnr. Private to "craint": it. Private to "cran": -.

"craint" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC  ·  "cran" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • craint ← carint · ccraint · crainnt · craintt · craitn · cranit · crraint · rcaint
  • cran ← carn · ccran · crann · crna · crran · rcan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "craint" for "cran" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "craint" is a verb and "cran" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "craint" vs "cran" - which ranks higher?
"craint" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,477 in our French list, against #10,304 for "cran". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "craint" and "cran" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "craint" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cran" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #395,261 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "craint" and "cran" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coon vs cran". 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 #395,261 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