crimvscryWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#37,259
“crim” frequency rank
#22,822
“cry” frequency rank
60081
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crim cry
Definition Criminel. Cri.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set crim and cry apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
crim
3 ch
cry

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. crim (\kɹɪm\) and cry (\ˈkɹaɪ\) 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 60081, 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\. cry is at rank #22,822, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɹaɪ\.

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 60081, this pair ranks #99,556 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of crim vs cry

Shared letters: cr. Private to "crim": im. Private to "cry": y.

"crim" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "cry" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crimccrim · cirm · crimm · crmi · crrim · rcim

Frequency comparison

crim#37,259
cry#22,822

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crim" and "cry" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɹɪm\ versus \ˈkɹaɪ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "crim" or "cry"?
"cry" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,822 in our French list, against #37,259 for "crim". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering crim vs cry

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list