crossesvscroûtesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#47,268
“crosses” frequency rank
#40,702
“croûtes” frequency rank
87970
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crosses croûtes
Definition Pluriel de crosse. Pluriel de croûte.

Where the eye mixes crosses and croûtes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. crosses (CCVCCVC) and croûtes (CCVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
crosses
7 ch
croûtes

Why the eye confuses crosses with croûtes

A purely visual mix-up. crosses (\kʁɔs\) and croûtes (\kʁut\) 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 87970, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crosses is recorded at frequency rank #47,268, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁɔs\. croûtes is at rank #40,702, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁut\.

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 87970, this pair ranks #7,592 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of crosses vs croûtes

Shared letters: ceors. Private to "crosses": -. Private to "croûtes": tû.

"crosses" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "croûtes" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crosses ← ccrosses · corsses · crosess · crossess · crossse · crrosses · crsoses · rcosses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "crosses" for "croûtes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kʁɔs\ versus \kʁut\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "crosses" vs "croûtes" - which ranks higher?
"croûtes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,702 in our French list, against #47,268 for "crosses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "crosses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "croûtes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,592 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crosses" and "croûtes" 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 #7,592 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