charvscragWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#15,585
“char” frequency rank
#44,715
“crag” frequency rank
60300
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature char crag
Definition To burn something to charcoal; to be burnt to charcoal. A rocky outcrop; a rugged steep cliff or rock.

Where the eye mixes char and crag

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
char
4 ch
crag

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: char is /t͡ʃɑː/ while crag is /kɹæɡ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60300, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

char is recorded at frequency rank #15,585, classified as averb, pronounced /t͡ʃɑː/. crag is at rank #44,715, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹæɡ/.

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 60300, this pair ranks #100,959 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of char vs crag

Shared letters: acr. Private to "char": h. Private to "crag": g.

"char" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "crag" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • charcahr · cchar · charr · chhar · chra · hcar
  • cragccrag · cragg · crga · crrag · rcag

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "char" and "crag" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "char" is a verb and "crag" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "char" or "crag"?
"char" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,585 in our English list, against #44,715 for "crag". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list