Which to use
“casks” is a noun and “crass” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #41,038
- “casks” frequency rank
- #30,381
- “crass” frequency rank
- 71419
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | casks | crass |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of cask | Coarse; crude; unrefined or insensitive; lacking discrimination or taste. |
Where the eye mixes casks and crass
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses casks with crass
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: casks is /kɑːsks/ while crass is /kɹæs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71419, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
casks is recorded at frequency rank #41,038, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɑːsks/. crass is at rank #30,381, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kɹæs/.
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 71419, this pair ranks #46,804 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of casks vs crass
Shared letters: acs. Private to "casks": k. Private to "crass": r.
"casks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "crass" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "casks" for "crass" ever safe?
Frequency check: "casks" vs "crass" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "casks" and "crass" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "casks" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crass" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #46,804 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "casks" and "crass" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "casks vs cates". 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 #46,804 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.