crééevscrêteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: créée is a verb, crête is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“créée” is a verb and “crête” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,394
“créée” frequency rank
#11,944
“crête” frequency rank
15338
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature créée crête
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de créer. Excroissance charnue que les coqs et quelques autres gallinacés ont sur leur tête.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set créée and crête apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
créée
5 ch
crête

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: créée is \kʁe.e\ while crête is \kʁɛt\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

créée is recorded at frequency rank #3,394, classified as averb, pronounced \kʁe.e\. crête is at rank #11,944, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɛt\.

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 15338, this pair ranks #392,792 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of créée vs crête

Shared letters: cer. Private to "créée": é. Private to "crête": .

"créée" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV  ·  "crête" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Frequency comparison

créée#3,394
crête#11,944

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "créée" and "crête" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "créée" is a verb and "crête" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "créée" or "crête"?
"créée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,394 in our French list, against #11,944 for "crête". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering créée vs crête

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “créée”; for a noun, it's “crête”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “créée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list