croisévscroisezTell them apart

Quick tell: croisé is a adjective, croisez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“croisé” is an adjective and “croisez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,962
“croisé” frequency rank
#37,261
“croisez” frequency rank
43223
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature croisé croisez
Definition Qualifie des choses qui se recouvrent en croix, ou approximativement. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de croiser.

Same sound, different letters: croisé vs croisez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. croisé runs 6 letters (CCVVCV) against croisez's 7 (CCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
croisé
7 ch
croisez

Same sound, different spelling - croisé / croisez

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: croisé and croisez carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kʁwa.ze\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43223, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

croisé is recorded at frequency rank #5,962, classified as anadj, pronounced \kʁwa.ze\. croisez is at rank #37,261, tagged as averb, pronounced \kʁwa.ze\.

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 43223, this pair ranks #219,728 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of croisé vs croisez

Shared letters: ciors. Private to "croisé": é. Private to "croisez": ez.

"croisé" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "croisez" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • croisez ← ccroisez · corisez · criosez · croiesz · croisezz · croissez · croisze · crosiez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "croisé" and "croisez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "croisé" is an adjective and "croisez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "croisé" or "croisez"?
"croisé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,962 in our French list, against #37,261 for "croisez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "croisé" / "croisez". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "croisé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "croisez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #219,728 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "croisé" and "croisez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "croisez vs cruiser". 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 #219,728 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