coresvscrewWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#14,499
“cores” frequency rank
#2,033
“crew” frequency rank
16532
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cores crew
Definition plural of core A group of people together

Where the eye mixes cores and crew

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cores
4 ch
crew

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. cores (/kɔːz/) and crew (/kɹuː/) 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 16532, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cores is recorded at frequency rank #14,499, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɔːz/. crew is at rank #2,033, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹuː/.

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 16532, this pair ranks #457,170 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cores vs crew

Shared letters: cer. Private to "cores": os. Private to "crew": w.

"cores" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "crew" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coresccores · coers · coress · corres · corse · croes · ocres
  • crewccrew · cerw · creww · crrew · crwe · rcew

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cores" and "crew" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kɔːz/ versus /kɹuː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cores" or "crew"?
"crew" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,033 in our English list, against #14,499 for "cores". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "cores" and "crew". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cores" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crew" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #457,170 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cores" and "crew" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cores vs cower". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list