Which to use
“cruels” and “crues” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,534
- “cruels” frequency rank
- #15,117
- “crues” frequency rank
- 39651
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cruels | crues |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de cruel. | Féminin pluriel de cru. |
Where the eye mixes cruels and crues
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cruels runs 6 letters (CCVVCC) against crues's 5 (CCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: cruels vs crues
A purely visual mix-up. cruels (\kʁy.ɛl\) and crues (\kʁy\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39651, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cruels is recorded at frequency rank #24,534, classified as anadj, pronounced \kʁy.ɛl\. crues is at rank #15,117, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kʁy\.
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 39651, this pair ranks #246,379 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cruels vs crues
Shared letters: cersu. Private to "cruels": l. Private to "crues": -.
"cruels" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC · "crues" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cruels" and "crues" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cruels" or "crues"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "cruels" and "crues" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cruels" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #246,379 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cruels" and "crues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cakes vs crues". 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 #246,379 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.