crapsvscrashWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,939
“craps” frequency rank
#2,722
“crash” frequency rank
39661
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature craps crash
Definition A game of gambling, or chance, where the players throw dice to make scores and avoid crap. A sudden, intense, loud sound, as made for example by cymbals.

Where the eye mixes craps and crash

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
craps
5 ch
crash

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. craps (/kɹæps/) and crash (/kɹæʃ/) 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 39661, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

craps is recorded at frequency rank #36,939, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɹæps/. crash is at rank #2,722, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹæʃ/.

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 39661, this pair ranks #274,665 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of craps vs crash

Shared letters: acrs. Private to "craps": p. Private to "crash": h.

"craps" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "crash" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crapscarps · ccraps · crapps · crapss · crasp · crpas · crraps · rcaps
  • crashcarsh · ccrash · crahs · crashh · crassh · crrash · crsah · rcash

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "craps" and "crash" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kɹæps/ versus /kɹæʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "craps" or "crash"?
"crash" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,722 in our English list, against #36,939 for "craps". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list