cratèrevscratèresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,496
“cratère” frequency rank
#38,233
“cratères” frequency rank
57729
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cratère cratères
Definition Vase à deux anses, plus large que profond, d’une grande capacité, contenant du vin et de l’eau mêlés, dont on remplissait les coupes qu’on passait ensuite à chaque convive. Pluriel de cratère.

Same sound, different letters: cratère vs cratères

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.

7 ch
cratère
8 ch
cratères

Homophone desk: cratère vs cratères

This is the hard kind. cratère and cratères are pronounced identically (\kʁa.tɛʁ\) 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 extra letter(s) - “cratère” sits inside “cratères”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57729, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cratère is recorded at frequency rank #19,496, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁa.tɛʁ\. cratères is at rank #38,233, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁa.tɛʁ\.

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 57729, this pair ranks #113,309 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cratère vs cratères

Shared letters: acertè. Private to "cratère": -. Private to "cratères": s.

"cratère" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "cratères" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cratère" for "cratères" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\kʁa.tɛʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "cratère" or "cratères" show up more?
"cratère" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,496 in our French list, against #38,233 for "cratères". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"cratère" and "cratères" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cratère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cratères" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #113,309 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cratère" and "cratères" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cratères vs critère". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #113,309 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