Which to use
“cross” and “crown” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,369
- “cross” frequency rank
- #31,429
- “crown” frequency rank
- 39798
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cross | crown |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sorte de course à pied hors route. | Verre spécial utilisé en optique. → voir crown-glass |
Where the eye mixes cross and crown
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between cross and crown
A purely visual mix-up. cross (\kʁɔs\) and crown (\kʁon\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39798, 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\. crown is at rank #31,429, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁon\.
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 39798, this pair ranks #245,293 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cross vs crown
Shared letters: cor. Private to "cross": s. Private to "crown": nw.
"cross" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "crown" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cross" and "crown" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cross" or "crown"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "cross" and "crown" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cross" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crown" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #245,293 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cross" and "crown" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "croco vs crown". 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 #245,293 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.