criquevscubiqueWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: crique is a noun, cubique is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“crique” is a noun and “cubique” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,361
“crique” frequency rank
#34,488
“cubique” frequency rank
66849
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes crique and cubique

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. crique runs 6 letters (CCVCVV) against cubique's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
crique
7 ch
cubique

Look-alike desk: crique vs cubique

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crique is \kʁik\ while cubique is \ky.bik\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66849, 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\. cubique is at rank #34,488, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ky.bik\.

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 66849, this pair ranks #66,001 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of crique vs cubique

Shared letters: ceiqu. Private to "crique": r. Private to "cubique": b.

"crique" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV  ·  "cubique" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • criqueccrique · criqeu · criqque · criuqe · crqiue · crrique · rcique
  • cubiquecbuique · ccubique · cubbique · cubiqeu · cubiqque · cubiuqe · cubqiue · cuibque

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "crique" and "cubique" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "crique" is a noun and "cubique" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "crique" or "cubique" show up more?
"crique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,361 in our French list, against #34,488 for "cubique". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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 "cubique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #66,001 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crique" and "cubique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crique 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 #66,001 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