chasesvscreasesTell them apart

Which to use

“chases” and “creases” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#21,745
“chases” frequency rank
#41,066
“creases” frequency rank
62811
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chases creases
Definition plural of chase plural of crease

Where the eye mixes chases and creases

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. chases runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against creases's 7 (CCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
chases
7 ch
creases

Look-alike desk: chases vs creases

A purely visual mix-up. chases (/ˈt͡ʃeɪsɪz/) and creases (/ˈkɹiːsɪz/) 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 62811, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chases is recorded at frequency rank #21,745, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈt͡ʃeɪsɪz/. creases is at rank #41,066, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɹiːsɪz/.

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 62811, this pair ranks #86,402 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chases vs creases

Shared letters: aces. Private to "chases": h. Private to "creases": r.

"chases" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "creases" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chases ← cahses · cchases · chaess · chasess · chasses · chhases · chsaes · hcases
  • creases ← ccreases · cerases · craeses · creaess · creasess · creasses · cresaes · crreases

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chases" for "creases" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈt͡ʃeɪsɪz/ versus /ˈkɹiːsɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "chases" or "creases" show up more?
"chases" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,745 in our English list, against #41,066 for "creases". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chases" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "creases" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #86,402 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chases" and "creases" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caresses vs creases". 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 #86,402 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