criervscrisesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: crier is a verb, crises is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“crier” is a verb and “crises” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,478
“crier” frequency rank
#5,854
“crises” frequency rank
10332
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crier crises
Definition Jeter un ou plusieurs cris. Pluriel de crise.

Where the eye mixes crier and crises

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

5 ch
crier
6 ch
crises

Look-alike desk: crier vs crises

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crier is \kʁi.je\ while crises is \kʁiz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10332, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crier is recorded at frequency rank #4,478, classified as averb, pronounced \kʁi.je\. crises is at rank #5,854, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁiz\.

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 10332, this pair ranks #413,379 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of crier vs crises

Shared letters: ceir. Private to "crier": -. Private to "crises": s.

"crier" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "crises" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crierccrier · creir · crierr · crire · crrier · rcier
  • crisesccrises · cirses · criess · crisess · crisses · crrises · crsies · rcises

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "crier" and "crises" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "crier" is a verb and "crises" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "crier" or "crises" show up more?
"crier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,478 in our French list, against #5,854 for "crises". 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 "crier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crises" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #413,379 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crier" and "crises" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crises vs cruiser". 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 #413,379 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