cashvscrushWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cash is a adverb, crush is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cash” is an adverb and “crush” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,343
“cash” frequency rank
#43,092
“crush” frequency rank
52435
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cash crush
Definition mit Bargeld, in bar Gewühl, Gedränge

Where the eye mixes cash and crush

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cash runs 4 letters (CVCC) against crush's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
cash
5 ch
crush

Visual trap between cash and crush

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cash is [kɛʃ] while crush is [krʌʃ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52435, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cash is recorded at frequency rank #9,343, classified as anadv, pronounced [kɛʃ]. crush is at rank #43,092, tagged as anoun, pronounced [krʌʃ].

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 52435, this pair ranks #1,097,112 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cash vs crush

Shared letters: chs. Private to "cash": a. Private to "crush": ru.

"cash" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "crush" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cash ← acsh · cahs · cashh · cassh · ccash · csah
  • crush ← ccrush · crrush · crsuh · cruhs · crushh · crussh · cursh · rcush

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cash" and "crush" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cash" is an adverb and "crush" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "cash" or "crush" show up more?
"cash" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,343 in our German list, against #43,092 for "crush". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cash" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crush" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,097,112 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cash" and "crush" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CPUs vs crush". 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 #1,097,112 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list