Which to use
“craps” and “crates” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,939
- “craps” frequency rank
- #20,077
- “crates” frequency rank
- 57016
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | craps | crates |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A game of gambling, or chance, where the players throw dice to make scores and avoid crap. | plural of crate |
Where the eye mixes craps and crates
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. craps runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against crates's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between craps and crates
A purely visual mix-up. craps (/kɹæps/) and crates (/kɹeɪts/) 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 57016, 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/. crates is at rank #20,077, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹeɪts/.
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 57016, this pair ranks #122,150 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of craps vs crates
Shared letters: acrs. Private to "craps": p. Private to "crates": et.
"craps" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "crates" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "craps" and "crates" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "craps" vs "crates" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "craps" and "crates" 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 "crates" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #122,150 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "craps" and "crates" 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 #122,150 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.