Which to use
“crus” is an adjective and “cursus” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,557
- “crus” frequency rank
- #11,027
- “cursus” frequency rank
- 22584
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crus | cursus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de cru. | Cycle éducatif, échelonnement graduel des matières enseignées et des diplômes. |
Where the eye mixes crus and cursus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. crus runs 4 letters (CCVC) against cursus's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between crus and cursus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crus is \kʁy\ while cursus is \kyʁ.sys\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22584, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crus is recorded at frequency rank #11,557, classified as anadj, pronounced \kʁy\. cursus is at rank #11,027, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kyʁ.sys\.
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 22584, this pair ranks #357,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of crus vs cursus
Shared letters: crsu. Private to "crus": -. Private to "cursus": -.
"crus" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "cursus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "crus" for "cursus" ever safe?
Frequency check: "crus" vs "cursus" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "crus" and "cursus" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "crus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cursus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #357,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crus" and "cursus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "casus vs crus". 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 #357,186 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.