crimevscrinWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,907
“crime” frequency rank
#42,257
“crin” frequency rank
44164
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crime crin
Definition Infraction très grave, à la morale ou à la loi. Poil long et rude qui pousse au cou, à la queue et aux extrémités inférieures des membres de certains animaux et spécialement des chevaux.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set crime and crin apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
crime
4 ch
crin

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. crime (\kʁim\) and crin (\kʁɛ̃\) 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 44164, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crime is recorded at frequency rank #1,907, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁim\. crin is at rank #42,257, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɛ̃\.

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 44164, this pair ranks #212,553 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crime vs crin

Shared letters: cir. Private to "crime": em. Private to "crin": n.

"crime" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "crin" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crimeccrime · cirme · criem · crimme · crmie · crrime · rcime
  • crinccrin · cirn · crinn · crni · crrin · rcin

Frequency comparison

crime#1,907
crin#42,257

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crime" and "crin" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kʁim\ versus \kʁɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "crime" or "crin"?
"crime" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,907 in our French list, against #42,257 for "crin". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering crime vs crin

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 “crime” 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