Which to use
“crisis” and “cross” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,787
- “crisis” frequency rank
- #8,369
- “cross” frequency rank
- 45156
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crisis | cross |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Crise. | Sorte de course à pied hors route. |
Where the eye mixes crisis and cross
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. crisis runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against cross's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses crisis with cross
A purely visual mix-up. crisis (\ˈkɹaɪ.sɪs\) and cross (\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 45156, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crisis is recorded at frequency rank #36,787, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɹaɪ.sɪs\. cross is at rank #8,369, 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 45156, this pair ranks #204,956 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of crisis vs cross
Shared letters: crs. Private to "crisis": i. Private to "cross": o.
"crisis" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "cross" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "crisis" and "cross" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "crisis" vs "cross" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "crisis" and "cross" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "crisis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cross" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #204,956 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crisis" and "cross" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crisis vs criss". 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 #204,956 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.