casesvscravesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cases is a noun, craves is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cases” is a noun and “craves” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#965
“cases” frequency rank
#32,750
“craves” frequency rank
33715
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cases craves
Definition plural of case third-person singular simple present indicative of crave

Where the eye mixes cases and craves

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

5 ch
cases
6 ch
craves

Why the eye confuses cases with craves

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cases is /ˈkeɪsɪz/ while craves is /kɹeɪvz/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33715, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cases is recorded at frequency rank #965, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkeɪsɪz/. craves is at rank #32,750, tagged as averb, pronounced /kɹeɪvz/.

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 33715, this pair ranks #327,011 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cases vs craves

Shared letters: aces. Private to "cases": -. Private to "craves": rv.

"cases" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "craves" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • casesacses · caess · casess · casses · ccases · csaes
  • cravescarves · ccraves · craevs · cravess · cravse · cravves · crraves · crvaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cases" for "craves" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cases" is a noun and "craves" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cases" or "craves"?
"cases" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #965 in our English list, against #32,750 for "craves". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cases" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "craves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #327,011 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cases" and "craves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cates vs craves". 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 #327,011 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