crimesvscrisesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,916
“crimes” frequency rank
#5,854
“crises” frequency rank
8770
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crimes crises
Definition Pluriel de crime. Pluriel de crise.

Where the eye mixes crimes and crises

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
crimes
6 ch
crises

Look-alike desk: crimes vs crises

A purely visual mix-up. crimes (\kʁim\) and crises (\kʁiz\) 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 a single letter - m in “crimes” becomes s in “crises”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8770, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crimes is recorded at frequency rank #2,916, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁim\. crises is at rank #5,854, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁiz\.

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 8770, this pair ranks #418,897 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of crimes vs crises

Shared letters: ceirs. Private to "crimes": m. Private to "crises": -.

"crimes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "crises" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crimesccrimes · cirmes · criems · crimess · crimmes · crimse · crmies · crrimes
  • crisesccrises · cirses · criess · crisess · crisses · crrises · crsies · rcises

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crimes" and "crises" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kʁim\ versus \kʁiz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "crimes" or "crises"?
"crimes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,916 in our French list, against #5,854 for "crises". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "crimes" and "crises" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "crimes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crises" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #418,897 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crimes" and "crises" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crises 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 #418,897 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