croirevscroîtTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#579
“croire” frequency rank
#18,977
“croît” frequency rank
19556
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature croire croît
Definition Tenir pour véritable. Augmentation d’un troupeau par la naissance des petits.

Where the eye mixes croire and croît

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

6 ch
croire
5 ch
croît

Look-alike desk: croire vs croît

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: croire is \kʁwaʁ\ while croît is \kʁwa\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19556, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

croire is recorded at frequency rank #579, classified as averb, pronounced \kʁwaʁ\. croît is at rank #18,977, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁwa\.

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 19556, this pair ranks #372,678 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of croire vs croît

Shared letters: cor. Private to "croire": ei. Private to "croît": .

"croire" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "croît" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • croireccroire · corire · criore · croier · croirre · crorie · crroire · rcoire

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "croire" and "croît" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "croire" is a verb and "croît" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "croire" vs "croît" - which ranks higher?
"croire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #579 in our French list, against #18,977 for "croît". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "croire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "croît" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #372,678 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "croire" and "croît" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "croco vs croît". 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 #372,678 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