clitvscrimWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#25,322
“clit” frequency rank
#41,573
“crim” frequency rank
66895
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clit crim
Definition Clipping of clitoris. A criminal.

Where the eye mixes clit and crim

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
clit
4 ch
crim

Why the eye confuses clit with crim

A purely visual mix-up. clit (/klɪt/) and crim (/kɹɪm/) 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 66895, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clit is recorded at frequency rank #25,322, classified as anoun, pronounced /klɪt/. crim is at rank #41,573, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹɪm/.

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 66895, this pair ranks #65,903 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of clit vs crim

Shared letters: ci. Private to "clit": lt. Private to "crim": mr.

"clit" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "crim" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clitcclit · cilt · clitt · cllit · clti · lcit
  • crimccrim · cirm · crimm · crmi · crrim · rcim

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "clit" and "crim" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/klɪt/ versus /kɹɪm/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "clit" or "crim"?
"clit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,322 in our English list, against #41,573 for "crim". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "clit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crim" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #65,903 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clit" and "crim" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crim vs Crist". 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 #65,903 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list