crisevscuireConfusable pair

Quick tell: crise is a noun, cuire is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“crise” is a noun and “cuire” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,109
“crise” frequency rank
#7,947
“cuire” frequency rank
9056
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crise cuire
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. Préparer les aliments par le moyen du feu, de la chaleur, pour les rendre propres à être mangés. Devenir propre à être mangé ou propre à tel ou tel usage par le moyen du feu, de la chaleur.

Where the eye mixes crise and cuire

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

5 ch
crise
5 ch
cuire

Look-alike desk: crise vs cuire

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crise is \kʁiz\ while cuire is \kɥiʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9056, 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\. cuire is at rank #7,947, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɥiʁ\.

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 9056, this pair ranks #417,941 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of crise vs cuire

Shared letters: ceir. Private to "crise": s. Private to "cuire": u.

"crise" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "cuire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • criseccrise · cirse · crrise · crsie · rcise
  • cuireccuire · ciure · cuier · cuirre · ucire

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "crise" for "cuire" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "crise" is a noun and "cuire" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "crise" or "cuire" show up more?
"crise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,109 in our French list, against #7,947 for "cuire". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "crise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cuire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #417,941 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crise" and "cuire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cuire vs cupide". 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 #417,941 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