cransvscrossWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,202
“crans” frequency rank
#8,369
“cross” frequency rank
49571
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crans cross
Definition Pluriel de cran. Sorte de course à pied hors route.

Where the eye mixes crans and cross

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

5 ch
crans
5 ch
cross

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. crans (\kʁɑ̃\) and cross (\kʁɔs\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49571, 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\. cross is at rank #8,369, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɔs\.

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 49571, this pair ranks #169,554 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crans vs cross

Shared letters: crs. Private to "crans": an. Private to "cross": o.

"crans" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "cross" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cranscarns · ccrans · cranns · cranss · crasn · crnas · crrans · rcans
  • crossccross · corss · crross · crsos · rcoss

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crans" and "cross" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kʁɑ̃\ versus \kʁɔs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "crans" or "cross"?
"cross" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,369 in our French list, against #41,202 for "crans". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "crans" and "cross". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "crans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cross" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #169,554 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crans" and "cross" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCAS vs crans". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list