CortesvscratesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Cortes is a name, crates is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Cortes” is a name and “crates” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,666
“Cortes” frequency rank
#20,077
“crates” frequency rank
55743
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Cortes crates
Definition A surname from Spanish, variant of Cortez plural of crate

Letter map: Cortes vs crates

Shared letters muted; letters that set Cortes and crates apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. Cortes (CVCCVC) and crates (CCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
Cortes
6 ch
crates

Part-of-speech tell for Cortes / crates

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Cortes is aname and cratesanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55743, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Cortes is recorded at frequency rank #35,666, classified as aname. crates is at rank #20,077, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹeɪts/.

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 55743, this pair ranks #131,343 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Cortes vs crates

Shared letters: cerst. Private to "Cortes": o. Private to "crates": a.

"Cortes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "crates" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Cortes ← ccortes · corets · corrtes · cortess · cortse · corttes · cotres · crotes
  • crates ← cartes · ccrates · craets · cratess · cratse · crattes · crrates · crtaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Cortes" and "crates" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Cortes" is a name and "crates" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Cortes" or "crates"?
"crates" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,077 in our English list, against #35,666 for "Cortes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "Cortes" vs "crates" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Cortes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crates" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #131,343 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Cortes" and "crates" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cortes vs Coutts". 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 #131,343 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list