Which to use
“crashes” and “crosses” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,652
- “crashes” frequency rank
- #8,775
- “crosses” frequency rank
- 17427
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crashes | crosses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of crash | plural of cross |
Where the eye mixes crashes and crosses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. crashes and crosses follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses crashes with crosses
A purely visual mix-up. crashes (/ˈkɹæʃɪz/) and crosses (/ˈkɹɔsɪz/) 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 17427, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crashes is recorded at frequency rank #8,652, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɹæʃɪz/. crosses is at rank #8,775, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɹɔsɪz/.
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 17427, this pair ranks #451,495 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of crashes vs crosses
Shared letters: cers. Private to "crashes": ah. Private to "crosses": o.
"crashes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "crosses" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "crashes" and "crosses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "crashes" vs "crosses" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "crashes" and "crosses" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "crashes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crosses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #451,495 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crashes" and "crosses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Crassus vs crosses". 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 #451,495 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.