crisesvscrossesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,854
“crises” frequency rank
#47,268
“crosses” frequency rank
53122
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crises crosses
Definition Pluriel de crise. Pluriel de crosse.

Where the eye mixes crises and crosses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
crises
7 ch
crosses

Visual trap between crises and crosses

A purely visual mix-up. crises (\kʁiz\) and crosses (\kʁɔs\) 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 53122, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crises is recorded at frequency rank #5,854, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁiz\. crosses is at rank #47,268, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɔs\.

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 53122, this pair ranks #142,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crises vs crosses

Shared letters: cers. Private to "crises": i. Private to "crosses": o.

"crises" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "crosses" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crisesccrises · cirses · criess · crisess · crisses · crrises · crsies · rcises
  • crossesccrosses · corsses · crosess · crossess · crossse · crrosses · crsoses · rcosses

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "crises" and "crosses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kʁiz\ versus \kʁɔs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "crises" or "crosses"?
"crises" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,854 in our French list, against #47,268 for "crosses". 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 "crises" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crosses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #142,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crises" and "crosses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "causses vs crosses". 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 #142,903 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