crepevscrimeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“crepe” and “crime” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#34,213
“crepe” frequency rank
#886
“crime” frequency rank
35099
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crepe crime
Definition tipo de panqueca de massa fina à base de farinha de trigo conduta descrita na legislação penal como sendo proibida, por meio de um tipo penal

Where the eye mixes crepe and crime

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. crepe and crime follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
crepe
5 ch
crime

Visual trap between crepe and crime

A purely visual mix-up. crepe (/ˈkɾɛ.pɨ/) and crime (/ˈkɾi.mɨ/) 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 35099, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crepe is recorded at frequency rank #34,213, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɾɛ.pɨ/. crime is at rank #886, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɾi.mɨ/.

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 35099, this pair ranks #32,006 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crepe vs crime

Shared letters: cer. Private to "crepe": p. Private to "crime": im.

"crepe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "crime" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crepe ← ccrepe · cerpe · creppe · crpee · crrepe · rcepe
  • crime ← ccrime · cirme · criem · crimme · crmie · crrime · rcime

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "crepe" for "crime" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkɾɛ.pɨ/ versus /ˈkɾi.mɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "crepe" or "crime" show up more?
"crime" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #886 in our Portuguese list, against #34,213 for "crepe". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "crepe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crime" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #32,006 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crepe" and "crime" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "creep vs crepe". 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 #32,006 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list