Which to use
“crates” and “cruces” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,077
- “crates” frequency rank
- #46,405
- “cruces” frequency rank
- 66482
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crates | cruces |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of crate | plural of crux |
Where the eye mixes crates and cruces
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. crates and cruces follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between crates and cruces
A purely visual mix-up. crates (/kɹeɪts/) and cruces (/ˈkɹu.siz/) 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 66482, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crates is recorded at frequency rank #20,077, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɹeɪts/. cruces is at rank #46,405, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɹu.siz/.
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 66482, this pair ranks #67,779 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of crates vs cruces
Shared letters: cers. Private to "crates": at. Private to "cruces": u.
"crates" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "cruces" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "crates" and "cruces" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "crates" or "cruces" show up more?
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 "crates" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cruces" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #67,779 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crates" and "cruces" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cruces vs crusts". 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 #67,779 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.