crassusvscrossesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#39,246
“crassus” frequency rank
#47,268
“crosses” frequency rank
86514
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crassus crosses
Definition Quelqu’un qui cherche toujours à se soustraire par la ruse à la moindre tâche ou corvée. Pluriel de crosse.

Where the eye mixes crassus and crosses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. crassus and crosses follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
crassus
7 ch
crosses

Look-alike desk: crassus vs crosses

A purely visual mix-up. crassus (\kʁa.sys\) and crosses (\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 86514, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crassus is recorded at frequency rank #39,246, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁa.sys\. crosses is at rank #47,268, 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 86514, this pair ranks #9,600 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of crassus vs crosses

Shared letters: crs. Private to "crassus": au. Private to "crosses": eo.

"crassus" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "crosses" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crassus ← carssus · ccrassus · crasssu · crassuss · crasus · crasuss · crrassus · crsasus
  • crosses ← ccrosses · corsses · crosess · crossess · crossse · crrosses · crsoses · rcosses

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crassus" and "crosses" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kʁa.sys\ versus \kʁɔs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "crassus" vs "crosses" - which ranks higher?
"crassus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,246 in our French list, against #47,268 for "crosses". 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 "crassus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crosses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,600 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crassus" and "crosses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "causses vs crosses". 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 #9,600 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