crauvscritWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#44,959
“crau” frequency rank
#32,770
“crit” frequency rank
77729
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crau crit
Definition Plaine semée de pierres et de galets arrondis, couverte d’une steppe propice aux activités pastorales. Cri.

Where the eye mixes crau and crit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. crau (CCVV) and crit (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
crau
4 ch
crit

Visual trap between crau and crit

A purely visual mix-up. crau (\kʁo\) and crit (\ˈkɾit\) 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 77729, 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\. crit is at rank #32,770, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɾit\.

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 77729, this pair ranks #27,607 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of crau vs crit

Shared letters: cr. Private to "crau": au. Private to "crit": it.

"crau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "crit" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crau ← caru · ccrau · crrau · crua · rcau
  • crit ← ccrit · cirt · critt · crrit · crti · rcit

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "crau" for "crit" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kʁo\ versus \ˈkɾit\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "crau" vs "crit" - which ranks higher?
"crit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,770 in our French list, against #44,959 for "crau". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "crit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #27,607 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crau" and "crit" 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 #27,607 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