Which to use
“cribs” and “crick” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,067
- “cribs” frequency rank
- #36,944
- “crick” frequency rank
- 78011
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cribs | crick |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of crib | A painful muscular cramp or spasm of some part of the body, as of the neck or back, making it difficult to move the part affected. |
Where the eye mixes cribs and crick
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cribs and crick follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: cribs vs crick
A purely visual mix-up. cribs (/kɹɪbz/) and crick (/kɹɪk/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78011, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cribs is recorded at frequency rank #41,067, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɹɪbz/. crick is at rank #36,944, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹɪk/.
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 78011, this pair ranks #25,715 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cribs vs crick
Shared letters: cir. Private to "cribs": bs. Private to "crick": k.
"cribs" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "crick" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cribs" for "crick" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cribs" vs "crick" - which ranks higher?
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 "cribs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crick" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #25,715 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cribs" and "crick" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cribs vs Crist". 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 #25,715 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.