Which to use
“cross” and “crosse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,369
- “cross” frequency rank
- #16,332
- “crosse” frequency rank
- 24701
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cross | crosse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sorte de course à pied hors route. | Bâton pastoral d’évêque ou d’abbé, dont l’extrémité supérieure se recourbe en volute. |
Same sound, different letters: cross vs crosse
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - cross and crosse
This is the hard kind. cross and crosse are pronounced identically (\kʁɔs\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “cross” sits inside “crosse”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cross is recorded at frequency rank #8,369, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁɔs\. crosse is at rank #16,332, 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 24701, this pair ranks #345,105 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cross vs crosse
Shared letters: cors. Private to "cross": -. Private to "crosse": e.
"cross" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "crosse" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cross" for "crosse" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cross" vs "crosse" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
"cross" and "crosse" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "cross" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crosse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #345,105 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cross" and "crosse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crosse 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 #345,105 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.