Which to use
“clowns” and “crown” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,920
- “clowns” frequency rank
- #2,665
- “crown” frequency rank
- 17585
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clowns | crown |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of clown | A royal, imperial or princely headdress; a diadem. |
Where the eye mixes clowns and crown
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between clowns and crown
A purely visual mix-up. clowns (/klaʊnz/) and crown (/kɹaʊn/) 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 17585, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clowns is recorded at frequency rank #14,920, classified as anoun, pronounced /klaʊnz/. crown is at rank #2,665, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹaʊn/.
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 17585, this pair ranks #450,429 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of clowns vs crown
Shared letters: cnow. Private to "clowns": ls. Private to "crown": r.
"clowns" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC · "crown" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "clowns" and "crown" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "clowns" or "crown"?
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 "clowns" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crown" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #450,429 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clowns" and "crown" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Clos vs clowns". 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 #450,429 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.