Which to use
“chews” and “claws” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,850
- “chews” frequency rank
- #13,683
- “claws” frequency rank
- 51533
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chews | claws |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of chew | plural of claw |
Where the eye mixes chews and claws
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: chews vs claws
A purely visual mix-up. chews (/t͡ʃuːz/) and claws (/klɔːz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51533, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chews is recorded at frequency rank #37,850, classified as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃuːz/. claws is at rank #13,683, tagged as anoun, pronounced /klɔːz/.
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 51533, this pair ranks #164,673 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of chews vs claws
Shared letters: csw. Private to "chews": eh. Private to "claws": al.
"chews" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "claws" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "chews" and "claws" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "chews" or "claws"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "chews" and "claws" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "chews" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "claws" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #164,673 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chews" and "claws" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chewie vs chews". 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 #164,673 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.