Which to use
“cond” is an adjective and “crud” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,131
- “cond” frequency rank
- #45,306
- “crud” frequency rank
- 89437
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cond | crud |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Clipping of conditional. | Dirt, filth or refuse. |
Where the eye mixes cond and crud
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cond (CVCC) and crud (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between cond and crud
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cond is /kɒnd/ while crud is /kɹʌd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89437, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cond is recorded at frequency rank #44,131, classified as anadj, pronounced /kɒnd/. crud is at rank #45,306, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹʌd/.
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 89437, this pair ranks #5,184 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cond vs crud
Shared letters: cd. Private to "cond": no. Private to "crud": ru.
"cond" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "crud" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cond" for "crud" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "cond" or "crud" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cond" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crud" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #5,184 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cond" and "crud" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cond vs cuny". 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 #5,184 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.