croiservscroisezWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,418
“croiser” frequency rank
#37,261
“croisez” frequency rank
44679
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature croiser croisez
Definition Disposer en forme de croix. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de croiser.

Same sound, different letters: croiser vs croisez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. croiser and croisez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
croiser
7 ch
croisez

Same sound, different spelling - croiser / croisez

This is the hard kind. croiser and croisez are pronounced identically (\kʁwa.ze\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - r in “croiser” becomes z in “croisez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44679, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

croiser is recorded at frequency rank #7,418, classified as averb, 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 44679, this pair ranks #208,644 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of croiser vs croisez

Shared letters: ceiors. Private to "croiser": -. Private to "croisez": z.

"croiser" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "croisez" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • croiserccroiser · coriser · crioser · croiesr · croiserr · croisre · croisser · crosier
  • croisezccroisez · corisez · criosez · croiesz · croisezz · croissez · croisze · crosiez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "croiser" for "croisez" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\kʁwa.ze\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "croiser" vs "croisez" - which ranks higher?
"croiser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,418 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.

After this comparison

"croiser" and "croisez" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "croiser" 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 #208,644 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "croiser" 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 #208,644 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