creditedvscrestedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“credited” and “crested” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#8,531
“credited” frequency rank
#33,595
“crested” frequency rank
42126
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature credited crested
Definition Having something attributed to oneself. Having a crest, or ornamental tuft (on an animal) or plume (on a helmet).

Where the eye mixes credited and crested

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. credited runs 8 letters (CCVCVCVC) against crested's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
credited
7 ch
crested

Look-alike desk: credited vs crested

A purely visual mix-up. credited (/ˈkɹɛd.ɪ.tɪd/) and crested (/ˈkɹɛstɪd/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42126, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

credited is recorded at frequency rank #8,531, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɹɛd.ɪ.tɪd/. crested is at rank #33,595, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɹɛstɪd/.

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 42126, this pair ranks #252,075 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of credited vs crested

Shared letters: cdert. Private to "credited": i. Private to "crested": s.

"credited" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC  ·  "crested" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • credited ← ccredited · cerdited · crdeited · creddited · credietd · creditde · creditedd · creditted
  • crested ← ccrested · cersted · cresetd · cressted · crestde · crestedd · crestted · cretsed

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "credited" for "crested" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkɹɛd.ɪ.tɪd/ versus /ˈkɹɛstɪd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "credited" or "crested"?
"credited" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,531 in our English list, against #33,595 for "crested". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "credited" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crested" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #252,075 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "credited" and "crested" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crested vs crusted". 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 #252,075 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list