criblevscriéeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#27,390
“crible” frequency rank
#37,260
“criée” frequency rank
64650
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crible criée
Definition Instrument percé d’un grand nombre de trous qui sert à trier des objets de grosseur ou de qualité inégales, en laissant passer les uns et en repoussant les autres. Proclamation pour annoncer la vente des biens en justice.

Where the eye mixes crible and criée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. crible runs 6 letters (CCVCCV) against criée's 5 (CCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
crible
5 ch
criée

Visual trap between crible and criée

A purely visual mix-up. crible (\kʁibl\) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64650, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crible is recorded at frequency rank #27,390, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁibl\. 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 64650, this pair ranks #76,023 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of crible vs criée

Shared letters: ceir. Private to "crible": bl. Private to "criée": é.

"crible" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "criée" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crible ← ccrible · cirble · crbile · cribble · cribel · criblle · crilbe · crrible

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "crible" for "criée" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kʁibl\ versus \kʁi.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "crible" vs "criée" - which ranks higher?
"crible" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,390 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.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "crible" and "criée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "crible" 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 #76,023 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crible" and "criée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "calée vs criée". 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 #76,023 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