caronvscroneWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#44,108
“caron” frequency rank
#47,002
“crone” frequency rank
91110
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caron crone
Definition háček An old woman.

Where the eye mixes caron and crone

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. caron (CVCVC) and crone (CCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
caron
5 ch
crone

Look-alike desk: caron vs crone

A purely visual mix-up. caron (/ˈkæɹən/) and crone (/kɹoʊn/) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91110, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caron is recorded at frequency rank #44,108, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkæɹən/. crone is at rank #47,002, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹoʊn/.

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 91110, this pair ranks #3,561 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caron vs crone

Shared letters: cnor. Private to "caron": a. Private to "crone": e.

"caron" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "crone" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caron ← carno · caronn · carron · ccaron · craon
  • crone ← ccrone · corne · crnoe · croen · cronne · crrone · rcone

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "caron" for "crone" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkæɹən/ versus /kɹoʊn/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "caron" or "crone" show up more?
"caron" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,108 in our English list, against #47,002 for "crone". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "caron" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crone" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,561 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caron" and "crone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Croat vs crone". 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 #3,561 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