Which to use
“cools” is a verb and “crooks” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,099
- “cools” frequency rank
- #21,766
- “crooks” frequency rank
- 48865
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cools | crooks |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | third-person singular simple present indicative of cool | plural of crook |
Where the eye mixes cools and crooks
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cools with crooks
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cools is /kuːlz/ while crooks is /kɹʊks/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48865, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cools is recorded at frequency rank #27,099, classified as averb, pronounced /kuːlz/. crooks is at rank #21,766, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹʊks/.
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 48865, this pair ranks #189,060 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cools vs crooks
Shared letters: cos. Private to "cools": l. Private to "crooks": kr.
"cools" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "crooks" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cools" for "crooks" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "cools" or "crooks" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cools" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crooks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #189,060 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cools" and "crooks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coms vs cools". 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 #189,060 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.