crédulesvscreusesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#43,871
“crédules” frequency rank
#20,684
“creuses” frequency rank
64555
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crédules creuses
Definition Pluriel de crédule. Féminin pluriel de creux.

Where the eye mixes crédules and creuses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. crédules runs 8 letters (CCVCVCVC) against creuses's 7 (CCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
crédules
7 ch
creuses

Look-alike desk: crédules vs creuses

A purely visual mix-up. crédules (\kʁe.dyl\) and creuses (\kʁøz\) 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 64555, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crédules is recorded at frequency rank #43,871, classified as anadj, pronounced \kʁe.dyl\. creuses is at rank #20,684, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kʁøz\.

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 64555, this pair ranks #76,509 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of crédules vs creuses

Shared letters: cersu. Private to "crédules": dlé. Private to "creuses": -.

"crédules" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC  ·  "creuses" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • creuses ← ccreuses · ceruses · cresues · creuess · creusess · creusse · creusses · crreuses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "crédules" for "creuses" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kʁe.dyl\ versus \kʁøz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "crédules" or "creuses" show up more?
"creuses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,684 in our French list, against #43,871 for "crédules". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "crédules" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "creuses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #76,509 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crédules" and "creuses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crapules vs crédules". 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 #76,509 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