chewsvscrewsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#37,850
“chews” frequency rank
#8,405
“crews” frequency rank
46255
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chews crews
Definition plural of chew plural of crew

Where the eye mixes chews and crews

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
chews
5 ch
crews

Why the eye confuses chews with crews

A purely visual mix-up. chews (/t͡ʃuːz/) and crews (/kɹuːz/) 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 a single letter - h in “chews” becomes r in “crews”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46255, 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/. crews is at rank #8,405, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹuːz/.

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 46255, this pair ranks #213,503 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chews vs crews

Shared letters: cesw. Private to "chews": h. Private to "crews": r.

"chews" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "crews" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chewscchews · cehws · chesw · chewss · chewws · chhews · chwes · hcews
  • crewsccrews · cerws · cresw · crewss · crewws · crrews · crwes · rcews

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chews" and "crews" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/t͡ʃuːz/ versus /kɹuːz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "chews" vs "crews" - which ranks higher?
"crews" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,405 in our English list, against #37,850 for "chews". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "chews" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crews" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #213,503 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chews" and "crews" 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 #213,503 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