cragvscruxWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#44,715
“crag” frequency rank
#27,109
“crux” frequency rank
71824
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crag crux
Definition A rocky outcrop; a rugged steep cliff or rock. The basic, central, or essential point or feature.

Where the eye mixes crag and crux

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. crag and crux follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
crag
4 ch
crux

Visual trap between crag and crux

A purely visual mix-up. crag (/kɹæɡ/) and crux (/kɹʌks/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71824, 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/. crux is at rank #27,109, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹʌks/.

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 71824, this pair ranks #45,253 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of crag vs crux

Shared letters: cr. Private to "crag": ag. Private to "crux": ux.

"crag" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "crux" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cragccrag · cragg · crga · crrag · rcag
  • cruxccrux · crrux · cruxx · crxu · curx · rcux

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "crag" and "crux" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/kɹæɡ/ versus /kɹʌks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "crag" or "crux" show up more?
"crux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,109 in our English list, against #44,715 for "crag". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "crag" and "crux" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "crag" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,253 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crag" and "crux" 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 #45,253 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