credovscreuxTell them apart

Quick tell: credo is a noun, creux is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“credo” is a noun and “creux” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,819
“credo” frequency rank
#6,945
“creux” frequency rank
29764
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature credo creux
Definition Variante de crédo, profession de foi. Qui présente une cavité, un trou intérieur.

Where the eye mixes credo and creux

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. credo (CCVCV) and creux (CCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
credo
5 ch
creux

Why the eye confuses credo with creux

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: credo is \kʁe.do\ while creux is \kʁø\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29764, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

credo is recorded at frequency rank #22,819, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁe.do\. creux is at rank #6,945, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kʁø\.

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 29764, this pair ranks #314,650 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of credo vs creux

Shared letters: cer. Private to "credo": do. Private to "creux": ux.

"credo" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "creux" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • credo ← ccredo · cerdo · crdeo · creddo · creod · crredo · rcedo
  • creux ← ccreux · cerux · creuxx · crexu · crreux · cruex · rceux

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "credo" for "creux" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "credo" is a noun and "creux" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "credo" or "creux" show up more?
"creux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,945 in our French list, against #22,819 for "credo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "credo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "creux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #314,650 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "credo" and "creux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "credo vs croco". 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 #314,650 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