casedvscrashedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#48,121
“cased” frequency rank
#6,670
“crashed” frequency rank
54791
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cased crashed
Definition simple past and past participle of case simple past and past participle of crash

Where the eye mixes cased and crashed

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cased
7 ch
crashed

Visual trap between cased and crashed

A purely visual mix-up. cased (/keɪst/) and crashed (/kɹæʃt/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54791, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cased is recorded at frequency rank #48,121, classified as averb, pronounced /keɪst/. crashed is at rank #6,670, tagged as averb, pronounced /kɹæʃt/.

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 54791, this pair ranks #138,444 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cased vs crashed

Shared letters: acdes. Private to "cased": -. Private to "crashed": hr.

"cased" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "crashed" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • casedacsed · caesd · casde · casedd · cassed · ccased · csaed
  • crashedcarshed · ccrashed · crahsed · crasehd · crashde · crashedd · crashhed · crasshed

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cased" and "crashed" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/keɪst/ versus /kɹæʃt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cased" or "crashed"?
"crashed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,670 in our English list, against #48,121 for "cased". 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 "cased" and "crashed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cased" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crashed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #138,444 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cased" and "crashed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cased vs clasped". 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 #138,444 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