CriesvscrisisTell them apart

Which to use

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

#28,505
“Cries” frequency rank
#36,787
“crisis” frequency rank
65292
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Cries crisis
Definition Pluriel de Crie. Crise.

Where the eye mixes Cries and crisis

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

5 ch
Cries
6 ch
crisis

Look-alike desk: Cries vs crisis

A purely visual mix-up. Cries (\kʁi\) and crisis (\ˈkɹaɪ.sɪs\) 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 65292, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Cries is recorded at frequency rank #28,505, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁi\. crisis is at rank #36,787, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɹaɪ.sɪs\.

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 65292, this pair ranks #73,013 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Cries vs crisis

Shared letters: cirs. Private to "Cries": e. Private to "crisis": -.

"Cries" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "crisis" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Cries ← ccries · cires · creis · crries · rcies
  • crisis ← ccrisis · cirsis · criiss · crisiss · crissi · crissis · crrisis · crsiis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Cries" and "crisis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kʁi\ versus \ˈkɹaɪ.sɪs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Cries" vs "crisis" - which ranks higher?
"Cries" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,505 in our French list, against #36,787 for "crisis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Cries" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crisis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,013 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Cries" and "crisis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crisis vs criss". 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 #73,013 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