Which to use
“crier” is a verb and “cruel” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,478
- “crier” frequency rank
- #8,524
- “cruel” frequency rank
- 13002
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crier | cruel |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Jeter un ou plusieurs cris. | Qui inflige la souffrance ou la mort ; qui a un caractère de cruauté, en parlant des hommes, des animaux ou des choses. |
Where the eye mixes crier and cruel
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. crier and cruel follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: crier vs cruel
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crier is \kʁi.je\ while cruel is \kʁy.ɛl\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13002, 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\. cruel is at rank #8,524, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kʁy.ɛl\.
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 13002, this pair ranks #402,842 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of crier vs cruel
Shared letters: cer. Private to "crier": i. Private to "cruel": lu.
"crier" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "cruel" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "crier" and "cruel" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "crier" vs "cruel" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "crier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cruel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #402,842 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crier" and "cruel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crier 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 #402,842 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.