Which to use
“crainte” and “crâne” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,022
- “crainte” frequency rank
- #4,659
- “crâne” frequency rank
- 9681
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crainte | crâne |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fait de craindre ou de redouter quelque chose. | Assemblage des os de la tête, partie du squelette destinée à protéger l’encéphale. |
Where the eye mixes crainte and crâne
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. crainte runs 7 letters (CCVVCCV) against crâne's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses crainte with crâne
A purely visual mix-up. crainte (\kʁɛ̃t\) and crâne (\kʁɑn\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9681, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crainte is recorded at frequency rank #5,022, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁɛ̃t\. crâne is at rank #4,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɑn\.
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 9681, this pair ranks #415,804 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of crainte vs crâne
Shared letters: cenr. Private to "crainte": ait. Private to "crâne": â.
"crainte" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCV · "crâne" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- crainte ← carinte · ccrainte · crainet · crainnte · craintte · craitne · cranite · criante
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "crainte" and "crâne" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "crainte" vs "crâne" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "crainte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crâne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #415,804 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crainte" and "crâne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crâne 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 #415,804 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.