crashesvscrushesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,652
“crashes” frequency rank
#23,796
“crushes” frequency rank
32448
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crashes crushes
Definition plural of crash plural of crush

Where the eye mixes crashes and crushes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. crashes and crushes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
crashes
7 ch
crushes

Look-alike desk: crashes vs crushes

A purely visual mix-up. crashes (/ˈkɹæʃɪz/) and crushes (/ˈkɹʌʃɪz/) 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 a single letter - a in “crashes” becomes u in “crushes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32448, 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/. crushes is at rank #23,796, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɹʌʃɪz/.

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 32448, this pair ranks #337,744 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crashes vs crushes

Shared letters: cehrs. Private to "crashes": a. Private to "crushes": u.

"crashes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "crushes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crashes ← carshes · ccrashes · crahses · crasehs · crashess · crashhes · crashse · crasshes
  • crushes ← ccrushes · crrushes · crsuhes · cruhses · crusehs · crushess · crushhes · crushse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crashes" and "crushes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkɹæʃɪz/ versus /ˈkɹʌʃɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "crashes" or "crushes"?
"crashes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,652 in our English list, against #23,796 for "crushes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "crashes" and "crushes" 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 "crushes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #337,744 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crashes" and "crushes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crushes vs crusted". 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 #337,744 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