Which to use
“caw” and “crow” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,655
- “caw” frequency rank
- #9,590
- “crow” frequency rank
- 58245
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | caw | crow |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The harsh cry of a crow. | A bird, usually black, of the genus Corvus, having a strong conical beak, with projecting bristles; it has a harsh, croaking call. |
Where the eye mixes caw and crow
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. caw (/kɔː/) and crow (/kɹəʊ/) 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 58245, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
caw is recorded at frequency rank #48,655, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɔː/. crow is at rank #9,590, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹəʊ/.
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 58245, this pair ranks #113,828 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of caw vs crow
Shared letters: cw. Private to "caw": a. Private to "crow": or.
"caw" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "crow" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- crow ← ccrow · corw · croww · crrow · crwo · rcow