craquevskrachConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#14,897
“craque” frequency rank
#35,116
“krach” frequency rank
50013
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature craque krach
Definition Mensonge. Désastre boursier, chute soudaine de la bourse.

Same sound, different letters: craque vs krach

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 2 letters. craque runs 6 letters (CCVCVV) against krach's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
craque
5 ch
krach

Ear matches; page differs - craque and krach

This is the hard kind. craque and krach are pronounced identically (\kʁak\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50013, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

craque is recorded at frequency rank #14,897, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁak\. krach is at rank #35,116, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁak\.

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 50013, this pair ranks #165,977 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of craque vs krach

Shared letters: acr. Private to "craque": equ. Private to "krach": hk.

"craque" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV  ·  "krach" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • craque ← carque · ccraque · craqeu · craqque · crauqe · crqaue · crraque · rcaque
  • krach ← karch · kkrach · kracch · krachh · krahc · krcah · krrach · rkach

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "craque" and "krach" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\kʁak\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "craque" vs "krach" - which ranks higher?
"craque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,897 in our French list, against #35,116 for "krach". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "craque" / "krach". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "craque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "krach" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #165,977 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "craque" and "krach" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crac vs krach". 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 #165,977 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