Which to use
“crested” and “crusted” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,595
- “crested” frequency rank
- #49,852
- “crusted” frequency rank
- 83447
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crested | crusted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having a crest, or ornamental tuft (on an animal) or plume (on a helmet). | Having or consisting of a crust. |
Where the eye mixes crested and crusted
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. crested and crusted follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between crested and crusted
A purely visual mix-up. crested (/ˈkɹɛstɪd/) and crusted (/ˈkɹʌstɪd/) 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 - e in “crested” becomes u in “crusted”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83447, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crested is recorded at frequency rank #33,595, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɹɛstɪd/. crusted is at rank #49,852, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɹʌstɪd/.
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 83447, this pair ranks #13,810 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of crested vs crusted
Shared letters: cderst. Private to "crested": -. Private to "crusted": u.
"crested" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "crusted" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "crested" and "crusted" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "crested" vs "crusted" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "crested" and "crusted" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "crested" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crusted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #13,810 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crested" and "crusted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crusted vs crusts". 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 #13,810 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.