Which to use
“clays” and “cray” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,382
- “clays” frequency rank
- #28,500
- “cray” frequency rank
- 65882
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clays | cray |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of clay | A crayfish or lobster. |
Where the eye mixes clays and cray
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. clays runs 5 letters (CCVVC) against cray's 4 (CCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between clays and cray
A purely visual mix-up. clays (/kleɪz/) and cray (/kɹæɪ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65882, 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/. cray is at rank #28,500, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹæɪ/.
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 65882, this pair ranks #70,616 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of clays vs cray
Shared letters: acy. Private to "clays": ls. Private to "cray": r.
"clays" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "cray" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "clays" and "cray" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "clays" or "cray"?
Useful next steps
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 "cray" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #70,616 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clays" and "cray" 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 #70,616 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.