capesvscrapsConfusable pair

Which to use

“capes” and “craps” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#28,860
“capes” frequency rank
#36,939
“craps” frequency rank
65799
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature capes craps
Definition plural of cape A game of gambling, or chance, where the players throw dice to make scores and avoid crap.

Where the eye mixes capes and craps

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

5 ch
capes
5 ch
craps

Look-alike desk: capes vs craps

A purely visual mix-up. capes (/keɪps/) and craps (/kɹæps/) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65799, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

capes is recorded at frequency rank #28,860, classified as anoun, pronounced /keɪps/. craps is at rank #36,939, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹæps/.

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 65799, this pair ranks #71,026 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of capes vs craps

Shared letters: acps. Private to "capes": e. Private to "craps": r.

"capes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "craps" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • capesacpes · caeps · capess · cappes · capse · ccapes · cpaes
  • crapscarps · ccraps · crapps · crapss · crasp · crpas · crraps · rcaps

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "capes" for "craps" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/keɪps/ versus /kɹæps/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "capes" vs "craps" - which ranks higher?
"capes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,860 in our English list, against #36,939 for "craps". 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 "capes" and "craps" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "capes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "craps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,026 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "capes" and "craps" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Crabb vs craps". 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 #71,026 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list