Which to use
“crans” and “crau” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,202
- “crans” frequency rank
- #44,959
- “crau” frequency rank
- 86161
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crans | crau |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de cran. | Plaine semée de pierres et de galets arrondis, couverte d’une steppe propice aux activités pastorales. |
Where the eye mixes crans and crau
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. crans runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against crau's 4 (CCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: crans vs crau
A purely visual mix-up. crans (\kʁɑ̃\) 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 86161, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crans is recorded at frequency rank #41,202, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁɑ̃\. 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 86161, this pair ranks #10,141 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of crans vs crau
Shared letters: acr. Private to "crans": ns. Private to "crau": u.
"crans" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "crau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "crans" and "crau" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "crans" or "crau"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "crans" 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 #10,141 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crans" 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 #10,141 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.