Which to use
“clays” is a noun and “crass” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,382
- “clays” frequency rank
- #30,381
- “crass” frequency rank
- 67763
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clays | crass |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of clay | Coarse; crude; unrefined or insensitive; lacking discrimination or taste. |
Where the eye mixes clays and crass
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. clays (CCVVC) and crass (CCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: clays vs crass
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: clays is /kleɪz/ while crass is /kɹæs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67763, 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/. crass is at rank #30,381, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kɹæs/.
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 67763, this pair ranks #61,859 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of clays vs crass
Shared letters: acs. Private to "clays": ly. Private to "crass": r.
"clays" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "crass" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "clays" for "crass" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "clays" or "crass" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "clays" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crass" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #61,859 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clays" and "crass" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clack vs clays". 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 #61,859 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.