Which to use
“cleaved” is an adjective and “craved” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,255
- “cleaved” frequency rank
- #32,749
- “craved” frequency rank
- 82004
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cleaved | craved |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cleft or cloven. | simple past and past participle of crave |
Where the eye mixes cleaved and craved
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cleaved with craved
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cleaved is /kliːvd/ while craved is /kɹeɪvd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82004, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cleaved is recorded at frequency rank #49,255, classified as anadj, pronounced /kliːvd/. craved is at rank #32,749, tagged as averb, pronounced /kɹeɪvd/.
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 82004, this pair ranks #16,576 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cleaved vs craved
Shared letters: acdev. Private to "cleaved": l. Private to "craved": r.
"cleaved" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC · "craved" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cleaved" and "craved" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "cleaved" or "craved" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "cleaved" and "craved" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cleaved" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "craved" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #16,576 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cleaved" and "craved" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cleaved vs cleve". 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 #16,576 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.