Which to use
“crème” and “crime” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,191
- “crème” frequency rank
- #1,907
- “crime” frequency rank
- 5098
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crème | crime |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie la plus grasse du lait, avec laquelle on fait le beurre. | Infraction très grave, à la morale ou à la loi. |
Where the eye mixes crème and crime
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. crème and crime follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: crème vs crime
A purely visual mix-up. crème (\kʁɛm\) and crime (\kʁim\) 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 a single letter - è in “crème” becomes i in “crime”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5098, 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\. crime is at rank #1,907, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁim\.
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 5098, this pair ranks #429,895 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of crème vs crime
Shared letters: cemr. Private to "crème": è. Private to "crime": i.
"crème" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "crime" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- crime ← ccrime · cirme · criem · crimme · crmie · crrime · rcime
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "crème" and "crime" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "crème" or "crime"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "crème" and "crime" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "crème" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crime" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #429,895 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crème" and "crime" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cese vs crème". 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 #429,895 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.