Which to use
“crest” and “cures” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,256
- “crest” frequency rank
- #30,120
- “cures” frequency rank
- 72376
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crest | cures |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Arête, crête. | Pluriel de cure. |
Where the eye mixes crest and cures
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses crest with cures
A purely visual mix-up. crest (\ˈkɹɛst\) and cures (\kyʁ\) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72376, 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\. cures is at rank #30,120, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kyʁ\.
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 72376, this pair ranks #44,231 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of crest vs cures
Shared letters: cers. Private to "crest": t. Private to "cures": u.
"crest" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "cures" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "crest" for "cures" ever safe?
Frequency check: "crest" vs "cures" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "crest" and "cures" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "crest" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cures" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #44,231 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crest" and "cures" 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 #44,231 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.