Which to use
“crau” and “crin” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,959
- “crau” frequency rank
- #42,257
- “crin” frequency rank
- 87216
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crau | crin |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Plaine semée de pierres et de galets arrondis, couverte d’une steppe propice aux activités pastorales. | Poil long et rude qui pousse au cou, à la queue et aux extrémités inférieures des membres de certains animaux et spécialement des chevaux. |
Where the eye mixes crau and crin
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. crau (CCVV) and crin (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses crau with crin
A purely visual mix-up. crau (\kʁo\) and crin (\kʁɛ̃\) 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 87216, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crau is recorded at frequency rank #44,959, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁo\. crin is at rank #42,257, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɛ̃\.
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 87216, this pair ranks #8,590 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of crau vs crin
Shared letters: cr. Private to "crau": au. Private to "crin": in.
"crau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "crin" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "crau" for "crin" ever safe?
Which is more common, "crau" or "crin"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "crau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #8,590 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crau" and "crin" 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 #8,590 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.