crânevscréeConfusable pair

Which to use

“crâne” and “crée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,659
“crâne” frequency rank
#2,272
“crée” frequency rank
6931
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crâne crée
Definition Assemblage des os de la tête, partie du squelette destinée à protéger l’encéphale. Sorte de toile.

Where the eye mixes crâne and crée

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

5 ch
crâne
4 ch
crée

Look-alike desk: crâne vs crée

A purely visual mix-up. crâne (\kʁɑn\) and crée (\kʁe.ə\) 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 6931, 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\. 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 6931, this pair ranks #424,778 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of crâne vs crée

Shared letters: cer. Private to "crâne": . Private to "crée": é.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crâne" and "crée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kʁɑn\ versus \kʁe.ə\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "crâne" 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 #4,659 for "crâne". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "crâne" 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 #424,778 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crâne" and "crée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crâne vs curage". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #424,778 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