crass vs Crassus, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“crass” is an adjective and “Crassus” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,381
“crass” frequency rank: #46,997
“Crassus” frequency rank: 77378
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	crass	Crassus
Definition	Coarse; crude; unrefined or insensitive; lacking discrimination or taste.	Marcus Licinius Crassus, a Roman general.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set crass and Crassus apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

crass

7 ch

Crassus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crass is /kɹæs/ while Crassus is /ˈkræsəs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “crass” sits inside “Crassus”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77378, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crass is recorded at frequency rank #30,381, classified as anadj, pronounced /kɹæs/. Crassus is at rank #46,997, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈkræsəs/.

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 77378, this pair ranks #27,453 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of crass vs Crassus

Shared letters: acrs. Private to "crass": -. Private to "Crassus": u.

"crass" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "Crassus" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

crass ← ccrass · crrass · crsas · rcass
Crassus ← carssus · ccrassus · crasssu · crassuss · crasus · crasuss · crrassus · crsasus

Frequency comparison

crass#30,381

Crassus#46,997

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crass" and "Crassus" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "crass" is an adjective and "Crassus" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "crass" or "Crassus"?

"crass" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,381 in our English list, against #46,997 for "Crassus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering crass vs Crassus

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “crass”; for a name, it's “Crassus”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “crass” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable