créancesvscroyancesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#14,900
“créances” frequency rank
#6,599
“croyances” frequency rank
21499
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature créances croyances
Definition Pluriel de créance. Pluriel de croyance.

Where the eye mixes créances and croyances

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. créances runs 8 letters (CCVVCCVC) against croyances's 9 (CCVVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
créances
9 ch
croyances

Why the eye confuses créances with croyances

A purely visual mix-up. créances (\kʁe.ɑ̃s\) and croyances (\kʁwa.jɑ̃s\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21499, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

créances is recorded at frequency rank #14,900, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁe.ɑ̃s\. croyances is at rank #6,599, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁwa.jɑ̃s\.

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 21499, this pair ranks #362,865 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of créances vs croyances

Shared letters: acenrs. Private to "créances": é. Private to "croyances": oy.

"créances" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCCVC  ·  "croyances" · 9 letters · shape CCVVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • croyances ← ccroyances · coryances · croaynces · croyacnes · croyancces · croyancess · croyancse · croyanecs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "créances" for "croyances" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kʁe.ɑ̃s\ versus \kʁwa.jɑ̃s\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "créances" vs "croyances" - which ranks higher?
"croyances" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,599 in our French list, against #14,900 for "créances". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "créances" and "croyances" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "créances" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "croyances" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #362,865 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "créances" and "croyances" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "croyances vs croyante". 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 #362,865 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