crivscryWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#28,523
“cri” frequency rank
#12,412
“cry” frequency rank
40935
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cri cry
Definition povo indígena da América do Norte, que habitava desde as montanhas Rochosas até o oceano Atlântico, tanto nos Estados Unidos da América quanto no Canadá choro

Where the eye mixes cri and cry

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
cri
3 ch
cry

Why the eye confuses cri with cry

A purely visual mix-up. cri (/ˈkɾi/) and cry (/kɹaɪ̯/) 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 a single letter - i in “cri” becomes y in “cry”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40935, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cri is recorded at frequency rank #28,523, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɾi/. cry is at rank #12,412, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹaɪ̯/.

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 40935, this pair ranks #25,084 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cri vs cry

Shared letters: cr. Private to "cri": i. Private to "cry": y.

"cri" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "cry" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cri" and "cry" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkɾi/ versus /kɹaɪ̯/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cri" or "cry" show up more?
"cry" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,412 in our Portuguese list, against #28,523 for "cri". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cri" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cry" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,084 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cri" and "cry" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coin vs cri". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #25,084 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