chromevscrimeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#12,886
“chrome” frequency rank
#20,211
“crime” frequency rank
33097
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chrome crime
Definition Chrom Verbrechen

Where the eye mixes chrome and crime

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
chrome
5 ch
crime

Why the eye confuses chrome with crime

A purely visual mix-up. chrome ([krəʊm]) and crime ([kɹaɪm]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33097, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chrome is recorded at frequency rank #12,886, classified as anoun, pronounced [krəʊm]. crime is at rank #20,211, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kɹaɪm].

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 33097, this pair ranks #1,693,326 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chrome vs crime

Shared letters: cemr. Private to "chrome": ho. Private to "crime": i.

"chrome" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCV  ·  "crime" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chromecchrome · chhrome · chorme · chrmoe · chroem · chromme · chrrome · crhome
  • crimeccrime · cirme · criem · crimme · crmie · crrime · rcime

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chrome" for "crime" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([krəʊm] versus [kɹaɪm]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "chrome" vs "crime" - which ranks higher?
"chrome" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,886 in our German list, against #20,211 for "crime". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "chrome" and "crime" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chrome" 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 #1,693,326 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chrome" and "crime" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cremes vs crime". 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 #1,693,326 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