Which to use
“claps” and “craps” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,180
- “claps” frequency rank
- #36,939
- “craps” frequency rank
- 70119
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | claps | craps |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of clap | A game of gambling, or chance, where the players throw dice to make scores and avoid crap. |
Where the eye mixes claps and craps
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. claps and craps follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses claps with craps
A purely visual mix-up. claps (/klæps/) and craps (/kɹæps/) 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 - l in “claps” becomes r in “craps”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70119, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
claps is recorded at frequency rank #33,180, classified as anoun, pronounced /klæps/. craps is at rank #36,939, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹæps/.
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 70119, this pair ranks #51,838 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of claps vs craps
Shared letters: acps. Private to "claps": l. Private to "craps": r.
"claps" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "craps" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "claps" for "craps" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "claps" or "craps" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "claps" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "craps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #51,838 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "claps" and "craps" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Crabb vs craps". 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 #51,838 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.