crêpevscriéeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,798
“crêpe” frequency rank
#37,260
“criée” frequency rank
57058
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crêpe criée
Definition Étoffe claire, légère et comme frisée, faite de laine fine ou de soie crue et gommée. Proclamation pour annoncer la vente des biens en justice.

Where the eye mixes crêpe and criée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. crêpe (CCVCV) and criée (CCVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
crêpe
5 ch
criée

Visual trap between crêpe and criée

A purely visual mix-up. crêpe (\kʁɛp\) and criée (\kʁi.je\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57058, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crêpe is recorded at frequency rank #19,798, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁɛp\. criée is at rank #37,260, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁi.je\.

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 57058, this pair ranks #117,294 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crêpe vs criée

Shared letters: cer. Private to "crêpe": pê. Private to "criée": ié.

"crêpe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "criée" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "crêpe" and "criée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kʁɛp\ versus \kʁi.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "crêpe" vs "criée" - which ranks higher?
"crêpe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,798 in our French list, against #37,260 for "criée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "crêpe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "criée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #117,294 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crêpe" and "criée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "calée vs criée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #117,294 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