Which to use
“crazy” is an adjective and “crony” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #898
- “crazy” frequency rank
- #40,192
- “crony” frequency rank
- 41090
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crazy | crony |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Of unsound mind; insane; demented. | A close friend. |
Where the eye mixes crazy and crony
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. crazy and crony follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between crazy and crony
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crazy is /ˈkɹeɪ.zi/ while crony is /ˈkɹoʊni/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41090, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crazy is recorded at frequency rank #898, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɹeɪ.zi/. crony is at rank #40,192, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɹoʊni/.
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 41090, this pair ranks #261,575 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of crazy vs crony
Shared letters: cry. Private to "crazy": az. Private to "crony": no.
"crazy" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "crony" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "crazy" and "crony" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "crazy" or "crony" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "crazy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crony" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #261,575 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crazy" and "crony" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Croat vs crony". 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 #261,575 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.