Which to use
“craved” and “craves” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,749
- “craved” frequency rank
- #32,750
- “craves” frequency rank
- 65499
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | craved | craves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of crave | third-person singular simple present indicative of crave |
Where the eye mixes craved and craves
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. craved and craves follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses craved with craves
A purely visual mix-up. craved (/kɹeɪvd/) and craves (/kɹeɪvz/) 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 - d in “craved” becomes s in “craves”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65499, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
craved is recorded at frequency rank #32,749, classified as averb, pronounced /kɹeɪvd/. craves is at rank #32,750, tagged as averb, pronounced /kɹeɪvz/.
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 65499, this pair ranks #72,440 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of craved vs craves
Shared letters: acerv. Private to "craved": d. Private to "craves": s.
"craved" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "craves" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "craved" and "craves" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "craved" or "craves" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "craved" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "craves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #72,440 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "craved" and "craves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "craved vs crewed". 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 #72,440 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.