crédulevscreuséWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#42,261
“crédule” frequency rank
#11,749
“creusé” frequency rank
54010
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crédule creusé
Definition Qui croit trop facilement ce qu’on lui dit, prompt à croire quelqu’un. (En parlant du visage ou de parties du visage) Empreint de creux, émacié.

Where the eye mixes crédule and creusé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. crédule runs 7 letters (CCVCVCV) against creusé's 6 (CCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
crédule
6 ch
creusé

Visual trap between crédule and creusé

A purely visual mix-up. crédule (\kʁe.dyl\) and creusé (\kʁø.ze\) 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 54010, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crédule is recorded at frequency rank #42,261, classified as anadj, pronounced \kʁe.dyl\. creusé is at rank #11,749, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kʁø.ze\.

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 54010, this pair ranks #136,911 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crédule vs creusé

Shared letters: cerué. Private to "crédule": dl. Private to "creusé": s.

"crédule" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "creusé" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crédule" and "creusé" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kʁe.dyl\ versus \kʁø.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "crédule" or "creusé" show up more?
"creusé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,749 in our French list, against #42,261 for "crédule". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "crédule" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "creusé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #136,911 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crédule" and "creusé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crédule vs crédules". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #136,911 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