Which to use
“caved” and “craves” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,586
- “caved” frequency rank
- #32,750
- “craves” frequency rank
- 62336
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | caved | craves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | past participle of cave | third-person singular simple present indicative of crave |
Where the eye mixes caved and craves
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. caved runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against craves's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between caved and craves
A purely visual mix-up. caved (/keɪvd/) and craves (/kɹeɪvz/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62336, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
caved is recorded at frequency rank #29,586, classified as averb, pronounced /keɪvd/. 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 62336, this pair ranks #89,078 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of caved vs craves
Shared letters: acev. Private to "caved": d. Private to "craves": rs.
"caved" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "craves" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "caved" and "craves" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "caved" or "craves" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "caved" and "craves" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "caved" 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 #89,078 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "caved" 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 #89,078 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.