Which to use
“cross” and “crosses” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,369
- “cross” frequency rank
- #47,268
- “crosses” frequency rank
- 55637
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cross | crosses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sorte de course à pied hors route. | Pluriel de crosse. |
Same sound, different letters: cross vs crosses
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - cross / crosses
This is the hard kind. cross and crosses 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 2 extra letter(s) - “cross” sits inside “crosses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55637, 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\. crosses is at rank #47,268, 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 55637, this pair ranks #126,187 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cross vs crosses
Shared letters: cors. Private to "cross": -. Private to "crosses": e.
"cross" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "crosses" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cross" for "crosses" ever safe?
Which is more common, "cross" or "crosses"?
After this comparison
"cross" and "crosses" 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 "crosses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #126,187 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cross" and "crosses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "causses 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 #126,187 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.