Which to use
“crâne” and “crau” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,659
- “crâne” frequency rank
- #44,959
- “crau” frequency rank
- 49618
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crâne | crau |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Assemblage des os de la tête, partie du squelette destinée à protéger l’encéphale. | Plaine semée de pierres et de galets arrondis, couverte d’une steppe propice aux activités pastorales. |
Where the eye mixes crâne and crau
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. crâne runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against crau's 4 (CCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between crâne and crau
A purely visual mix-up. crâne (\kʁɑn\) and crau (\kʁo\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49618, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crâne is recorded at frequency rank #4,659, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁɑn\. crau is at rank #44,959, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁo\.
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 49618, this pair ranks #169,179 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of crâne vs crau
Shared letters: cr. Private to "crâne": enâ. Private to "crau": au.
"crâne" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "crau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- crau ← caru · ccrau · crrau · crua · rcau
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "crâne" and "crau" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "crâne" vs "crau" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "crâne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #169,179 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crâne" and "crau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chah vs crau". 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 #169,179 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.