Which to use
“cray” is a noun and “Cree” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,500
- “cray” frequency rank
- #28,161
- “Cree” frequency rank
- 56661
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cray | Cree |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A crayfish or lobster. | An aboriginal nation of North America. |
Where the eye mixes cray and Cree
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cray with Cree
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cray is /kɹæɪ/ while Cree is /kɹiː/. 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 (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56661, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cray is recorded at frequency rank #28,500, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɹæɪ/. Cree is at rank #28,161, tagged as aname, pronounced /kɹiː/.
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 56661, this pair ranks #124,634 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cray vs Cree
Shared letters: cr. Private to "cray": ay. Private to "Cree": e.
"cray" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "Cree" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cray" and "Cree" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "cray" or "Cree" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "cray" and "Cree" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cray" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Cree" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #124,634 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cray" and "Cree" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cray vs Croat". 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 #124,634 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.