crisevsCRSWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,109
“crise” frequency rank
#12,348
“CRS” frequency rank
13457
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crise CRS
Definition Changement en bien ou en mal qui survient dans le cours d’une maladie et s’annonce par quelques phénomènes particuliers, comme une excrétion abondante, une hémorragie considérable, des sueurs, un dépôt dans les urines, etc. Variante orthographique de C.R.S.

Where the eye mixes crise and CRS

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
crise
3 ch
CRS

Why the eye confuses crise with CRS

A purely visual mix-up. crise (\kʁiz\) and CRS (\se.ɛ.ʁɛs\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13457, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crise is recorded at frequency rank #1,109, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁiz\. CRS is at rank #12,348, tagged as anoun, pronounced \se.ɛ.ʁɛs\.

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 13457, this pair ranks #400,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of crise vs CRS

Shared letters: crs. Private to "crise": ei. Private to "CRS": -.

"crise" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "CRS" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • criseccrise · cirse · crrise · crsie · rcise

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crise" and "CRS" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kʁiz\ versus \se.ɛ.ʁɛs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "crise" or "CRS"?
"crise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,109 in our French list, against #12,348 for "CRS". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "crise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "CRS" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #400,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crise" and "CRS" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciro vs CRS". 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 #400,960 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