Which to use
“crest” and “crête” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,256
- “crest” frequency rank
- #11,944
- “crête” frequency rank
- 54200
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crest | crête |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Arête, crête. | Excroissance charnue que les coqs et quelques autres gallinacés ont sur leur tête. |
Where the eye mixes crest and crête
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. crest (CCVCC) and crête (CCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses crest with crête
A purely visual mix-up. crest (\ˈkɹɛst\) and crête (\kʁɛt\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54200, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crest is recorded at frequency rank #42,256, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɹɛst\. 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 54200, this pair ranks #135,569 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of crest vs crête
Shared letters: cert. Private to "crest": s. Private to "crête": ê.
"crest" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "crête" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- crest ← ccrest · cerst · cresst · crestt · crets · crrest · crset · rcest
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "crest" and "crête" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "crest" or "crête"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "crest" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crête" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #135,569 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crest" and "crête" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cese vs crest". 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 #135,569 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.