Which to use
“crews” is a noun and “cries” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,405
- “crews” frequency rank
- #7,901
- “cries” frequency rank
- 16306
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crews | cries |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of crew | third-person singular simple present indicative of cry |
Where the eye mixes crews and cries
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: crews vs cries
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crews is /kɹuːz/ while cries is /kɹaɪ̯z/. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16306, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crews is recorded at frequency rank #8,405, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɹuːz/. cries is at rank #7,901, tagged as averb, pronounced /kɹaɪ̯z/.
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 16306, this pair ranks #458,597 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of crews vs cries
Shared letters: cers. Private to "crews": w. Private to "cries": i.
"crews" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "cries" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "crews" for "cries" ever safe?
Which is more common, "crews" or "cries"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "crews" and "cries" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "crews" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cries" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #458,597 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crews" and "cries" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crewed vs crews". 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 #458,597 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.