Which to use
“crag” and “cray” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,715
- “crag” frequency rank
- #28,500
- “cray” frequency rank
- 73215
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crag | cray |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A rocky outcrop; a rugged steep cliff or rock. | A crayfish or lobster. |
Where the eye mixes crag and cray
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. crag (CCVC) and cray (CCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses crag with cray
A purely visual mix-up. crag (/kɹæɡ/) and cray (/kɹæɪ/) 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 a single letter - g in “crag” becomes y in “cray”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73215, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crag is recorded at frequency rank #44,715, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɹæɡ/. cray is at rank #28,500, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹæɪ/.
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 73215, this pair ranks #40,375 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of crag vs cray
Shared letters: acr. Private to "crag": g. Private to "cray": y.
"crag" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "cray" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "crag" for "cray" ever safe?
Frequency check: "crag" vs "cray" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "crag" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cray" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #40,375 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crag" and "cray" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crag vs Croat". 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 #40,375 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.