crapsvscrateWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#36,939
“craps” frequency rank
#15,594
“crate” frequency rank
52533
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature craps crate
Definition A game of gambling, or chance, where the players throw dice to make scores and avoid crap. A large open box or basket, used especially to transport fragile goods.

Where the eye mixes craps and crate

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. craps (CCVCC) and crate (CCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
craps
5 ch
crate

Visual trap between craps and crate

A purely visual mix-up. craps (/kɹæps/) and crate (/kɹeɪt/) 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 52533, 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/. crate is at rank #15,594, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹeɪt/.

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 52533, this pair ranks #156,239 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of craps vs crate

Shared letters: acr. Private to "craps": ps. Private to "crate": et.

"craps" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "crate" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • craps ← carps · ccraps · crapps · crapss · crasp · crpas · crraps · rcaps
  • crate ← ccrate · craet · cratte · crrate · crtae · rcate

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "craps" and "crate" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/kɹæps/ versus /kɹeɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "craps" or "crate" show up more?
"crate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,594 in our English list, against #36,939 for "craps". 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 "craps" and "crate" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "craps" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #156,239 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "craps" and "crate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Crabb vs craps". 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 #156,239 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