crisisvscrossWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#22,590
“crisis” frequency rank
#7,749
“cross” frequency rank
30339
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crisis cross
Definition crise cruz

Letter map: crisis vs cross

Shared letters muted; letters that set crisis and cross apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. crisis runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against cross's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
crisis
5 ch
cross

Pair insight - crisis / cross

crisis and cross are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30339, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crisis is recorded at frequency rank #22,590, classified as anoun. cross is at rank #7,749, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹɒs/.

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 30339, this pair ranks #38,045 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crisis vs cross

Shared letters: crs. Private to "crisis": i. Private to "cross": o.

"crisis" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "cross" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crisis ← ccrisis · cirsis · criiss · crisiss · crissi · crissis · crrisis · crsiis
  • cross ← ccross · corss · cros · crross · crsos · rcoss

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "crisis" and "cross" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "crisis" vs "cross" - which ranks higher?
"cross" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,749 in our Portuguese list, against #22,590 for "crisis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "crisis" and "cross". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "crisis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cross" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,045 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crisis" and "cross" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chess vs cross". 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 #38,045 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