Which to use
“cowl” and “crows” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,997
- “cowl” frequency rank
- #15,596
- “crows” frequency rank
- 49593
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cowl | crows |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A monk's hood that can be pulled forward to cover the face; a robe with such a hood attached to it. | plural of crow |
Where the eye mixes cowl and crows
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between cowl and crows
A purely visual mix-up. cowl (/kaʊl/) and crows (/kɹəʊz/) 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 49593, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cowl is recorded at frequency rank #33,997, classified as anoun, pronounced /kaʊl/. crows is at rank #15,596, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹəʊz/.
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 49593, this pair ranks #182,131 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cowl vs crows
Shared letters: cow. Private to "cowl": l. Private to "crows": rs.
"cowl" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "crows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cowl" and "crows" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "cowl" or "crows" 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 "cowl" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crows" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #182,131 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cowl" and "crows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cower vs cowl". 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 #182,131 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.