claysvscrapsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#37,382
“clays” frequency rank
#36,939
“craps” frequency rank
74321
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clays craps
Definition plural of clay A game of gambling, or chance, where the players throw dice to make scores and avoid crap.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set clays and craps apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
clays
5 ch
craps

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. clays (/kleɪz/) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74321, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clays is recorded at frequency rank #37,382, classified as anoun, pronounced /kleɪz/. 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 74321, this pair ranks #36,727 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of clays vs craps

Shared letters: acs. Private to "clays": ly. Private to "craps": pr.

"clays" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "craps" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clayscalys · cclays · clayss · clayys · cllays · clyas · lcays
  • crapscarps · ccraps · crapps · crapss · crasp · crpas · crraps · rcaps

Frequency comparison

clays#37,382
craps#36,939

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "clays" and "craps" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kleɪz/ versus /kɹæps/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "clays" or "craps"?
"craps" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,939 in our English list, against #37,382 for "clays". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering clays vs craps

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “clays” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list