Which to use
“craven” is an adjective and “craze” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,633
- “craven” frequency rank
- #18,283
- “craze” frequency rank
- 40916
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | craven | craze |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Unwilling to fight; lacking even the rudiments of courage; extremely cowardly. | A strong habitual desire or fancy. |
Where the eye mixes craven and craze
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. craven runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against craze's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: craven vs craze
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: craven is /ˈkɹeɪ.vən/ while craze is /kɹeɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40916, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
craven is recorded at frequency rank #22,633, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɹeɪ.vən/. craze is at rank #18,283, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹeɪz/.
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 40916, this pair ranks #263,239 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of craven vs craze
Shared letters: acer. Private to "craven": nv. Private to "craze": z.
"craven" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "craze" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "craven" for "craze" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "craven" or "craze" 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 "craven" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "craze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #263,239 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "craven" and "craze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Crabb vs craze". 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 #263,239 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.