créevscreuséConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#2,272
“crée” frequency rank
#11,749
“creusé” frequency rank
14021
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crée creusé
Definition Sorte de toile. (En parlant du visage ou de parties du visage) Empreint de creux, émacié.

Where the eye mixes crée and creusé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. crée runs 4 letters (CCVV) against creusé's 6 (CCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
crée
6 ch
creusé

Look-alike desk: crée vs creusé

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crée is \kʁe.ə\ while creusé is \kʁø.ze\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14021, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crée is recorded at frequency rank #2,272, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁe.ə\. 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 14021, this pair ranks #398,534 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of crée vs creusé

Shared letters: ceré. Private to "crée": -. Private to "creusé": su.

"crée" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "creusé" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crée" and "creusé" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "crée" is a noun and "creusé" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "crée" or "creusé" show up more?
"crée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,272 in our French list, against #11,749 for "creusé". 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 "crée" 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 #398,534 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crée" and "creusé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cese vs creusé". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #398,534 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