Which to use
“crème” and “crew” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,191
- “crème” frequency rank
- #20,685
- “crew” frequency rank
- 23876
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crème | crew |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie la plus grasse du lait, avec laquelle on fait le beurre. | Groupe. |
Where the eye mixes crème and crew
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. crème runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against crew's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: crème vs crew
A purely visual mix-up. crème (\kʁɛm\) and crew (\kʁu\) 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 23876, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crème is recorded at frequency rank #3,191, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁɛm\. crew is at rank #20,685, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁu\.
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 23876, this pair ranks #349,930 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of crème vs crew
Shared letters: cer. Private to "crème": mè. Private to "crew": w.
"crème" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "crew" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- crew ← ccrew · cerw · creww · crrew · crwe · rcew
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "crème" for "crew" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "crème" or "crew" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "crème" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crew" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #349,930 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crème" and "crew" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs crew". 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 #349,930 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.