crim vs crimes, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#37,259
“crim” frequency rank: #2,916
“crimes” frequency rank: 40175
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	crim	crimes
Definition	Criminel.	Pluriel de crime.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set crim and crimes apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

crim

6 ch

crimes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. crim (\kɹɪm\) and crimes (\kʁim\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “crim” sits inside “crimes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40175, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crim is recorded at frequency rank #37,259, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɹɪm\. crimes is at rank #2,916, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁim\.

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 40175, this pair ranks #242,456 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crim vs crimes

Shared letters: cimr. Private to "crim": -. Private to "crimes": es.

"crim" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "crimes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

crim ← ccrim · cirm · crimm · crmi · crrim · rcim
crimes ← ccrimes · cirmes · criems · crimess · crimmes · crimse · crmies · crrimes

Frequency comparison

crim#37,259

crimes#2,916

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crim" and "crimes" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\kɹɪm\ versus \kʁim\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "crim" or "crimes"?

"crimes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,916 in our French list, against #37,259 for "crim". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering crim vs crimes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “crim” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable