Which to use
“crates” and “curate” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,077
- “crates” frequency rank
- #27,796
- “curate” frequency rank
- 47873
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crates | curate |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of crate | An assistant rector or vicar. |
Where the eye mixes crates and curate
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses crates with curate
A purely visual mix-up. crates (/kɹeɪts/) and curate (/ˈkjʊəɹət/) 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 5 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47873, 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/. curate is at rank #27,796, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkjʊəɹət/.
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 47873, this pair ranks #198,384 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of crates vs curate
Shared letters: acert. Private to "crates": s. Private to "curate": u.
"crates" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "curate" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "crates" and "curate" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "crates" or "curate" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "crates" and "curate" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "crates" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "curate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #198,384 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crates" and "curate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "curate vs curative". 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 #198,384 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.