chasingvscrashingConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#5,864
“chasing” frequency rank
#9,027
“crashing” frequency rank
14891
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chasing crashing
Definition present participle and gerund of chase present participle and gerund of crash

Where the eye mixes chasing and crashing

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
chasing
8 ch
crashing

Visual trap between chasing and crashing

A purely visual mix-up. chasing (/ˈt͡ʃeɪsɪŋ/) and crashing (/ˈkɹæʃɪŋ/) 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 14891, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chasing is recorded at frequency rank #5,864, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈt͡ʃeɪsɪŋ/. crashing is at rank #9,027, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkɹæʃɪŋ/.

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 14891, this pair ranks #467,334 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chasing vs crashing

Shared letters: acghins. Private to "chasing": -. Private to "crashing": r.

"chasing" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC  ·  "crashing" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chasingcahsing · cchasing · chaisng · chasign · chasingg · chasinng · chasnig · chassing
  • crashingcarshing · ccrashing · crahsing · crashhing · crashign · crashingg · crashinng · crashnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chasing" for "crashing" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈt͡ʃeɪsɪŋ/ versus /ˈkɹæʃɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "chasing" or "crashing" show up more?
"chasing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,864 in our English list, against #9,027 for "crashing". 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 "chasing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crashing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #467,334 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chasing" and "crashing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chaining vs chasing". 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 #467,334 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