Which to use
“crews” and “crows” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,405
- “crews” frequency rank
- #15,596
- “crows” frequency rank
- 24001
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crews | crows |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of crew | plural of crow |
Where the eye mixes crews and crows
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: crews vs crows
A purely visual mix-up. crews (/kɹuːz/) and crows (/kɹəʊz/) 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 “crews” becomes o in “crows”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24001, 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/. crows is at rank #15,596, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹəʊz/.
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 24001, this pair ranks #405,211 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of crews vs crows
Shared letters: crsw. Private to "crews": e. Private to "crows": o.
"crews" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "crows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "crews" and "crows" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "crews" or "crows" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "crews" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crows" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #405,211 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crews" and "crows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Croat vs crows". 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 #405,211 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.