clumpvscrumpWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#31,110
“clump” frequency rank
#39,264
“crump” frequency rank
70374
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clump crump
Definition A cluster or lump; an unshaped piece or mass. The sound of a muffled explosion.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set clump and crump apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
clump
5 ch
crump

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. clump (/klʌmp/) and crump (/kɹʌmp/) 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 a single letter - l in “clump” becomes r in “crump”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70374, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clump is recorded at frequency rank #31,110, classified as anoun, pronounced /klʌmp/. crump is at rank #39,264, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹʌmp/.

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 70374, this pair ranks #50,839 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of clump vs crump

Shared letters: cmpu. Private to "clump": l. Private to "crump": r.

"clump" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "crump" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clumpcclump · cllump · clmup · clummp · clumpp · clupm · culmp · lcump
  • crumpccrump · crmup · crrump · crummp · crumpp · crupm · curmp · rcump

Frequency comparison

clump#31,110
crump#39,264

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "clump" and "crump" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/klʌmp/ versus /kɹʌmp/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "clump" or "crump"?
"clump" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,110 in our English list, against #39,264 for "crump". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering clump vs crump

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “clump” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list