crinvscrownWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#42,257
“crin” frequency rank
#31,429
“crown” frequency rank
73686
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crin crown
Definition Poil long et rude qui pousse au cou, à la queue et aux extrémités inférieures des membres de certains animaux et spécialement des chevaux. Verre spécial utilisé en optique. → voir crown-glass

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch
crin
5 ch
crown

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. crin (\kʁɛ̃\) and crown (\kʁon\) 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 73686, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crin is recorded at frequency rank #42,257, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁɛ̃\. crown is at rank #31,429, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁon\.

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 73686, this pair ranks #39,617 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of crin vs crown

Shared letters: cnr. Private to "crin": i. Private to "crown": ow.

"crin" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "crown" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crinccrin · cirn · crinn · crni · crrin · rcin
  • crownccrown · corwn · cronw · crownn · crowwn · crrown · crwon · rcown

Frequency comparison

crin#42,257
crown#31,429

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crin" and "crown" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kʁɛ̃\ versus \kʁon\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "crin" or "crown"?
"crown" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,429 in our French list, against #42,257 for "crin". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering crin vs crown

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 “crin” 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