criquevscriquetsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#32,361
“crique” frequency rank
#44,960
“criquets” frequency rank
77321
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crique criquets
Definition Petite baie, partie du rivage qui forme dans les terres un enfoncement où de petits bateaux peuvent se mettre à l’abri. Pluriel de criquet.

Where the eye mixes crique and criquets

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. crique runs 6 letters (CCVCVV) against criquets's 8 (CCVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
crique
8 ch
criquets

Why the eye confuses crique with criquets

A purely visual mix-up. crique (\kʁik\) and criquets (\kʁi.kɛ\) 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) - “crique” sits inside “criquets”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77321, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crique is recorded at frequency rank #32,361, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁik\. criquets is at rank #44,960, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁi.kɛ\.

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 77321, this pair ranks #28,729 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of crique vs criquets

Shared letters: ceiqru. Private to "crique": -. Private to "criquets": st.

"crique" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV  ·  "criquets" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crique ← ccrique · criqeu · criqque · criuqe · crqiue · crrique · rcique
  • criquets ← ccriquets · cirquets · criqeuts · criqquets · criquest · criquetss · criquetts · criqutes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "crique" and "criquets" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kʁik\ versus \kʁi.kɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "crique" vs "criquets" - which ranks higher?
"crique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,361 in our French list, against #44,960 for "criquets". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "crique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "criquets" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #28,729 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crique" and "criquets" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cliquetis vs criquets". 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 #28,729 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