Which to use
“crass” is an adjective and “cribs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,381
- “crass” frequency rank
- #41,067
- “cribs” frequency rank
- 71448
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crass | cribs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Coarse; crude; unrefined or insensitive; lacking discrimination or taste. | plural of crib |
Where the eye mixes crass and cribs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. crass and cribs follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: crass vs cribs
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crass is /kɹæs/ while cribs is /kɹɪbz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71448, 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/. cribs is at rank #41,067, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹɪbz/.
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 71448, this pair ranks #46,674 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of crass vs cribs
Shared letters: crs. Private to "crass": a. Private to "cribs": bi.
"crass" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "cribs" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "crass" for "cribs" ever safe?
Frequency check: "crass" vs "cribs" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "crass" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cribs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #46,674 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crass" and "cribs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cribs vs Crist". 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 #46,674 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.