Which to use
“cribs” and “crim” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,067
- “cribs” frequency rank
- #41,573
- “crim” frequency rank
- 82640
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cribs | crim |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of crib | A criminal. |
Where the eye mixes cribs and crim
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cribs runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against crim's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between cribs and crim
A purely visual mix-up. cribs (/kɹɪbz/) and crim (/kɹɪm/) 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 82640, 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/. crim is at rank #41,573, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹɪm/.
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 82640, this pair ranks #15,361 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cribs vs crim
Shared letters: cir. Private to "cribs": bs. Private to "crim": m.
"cribs" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "crim" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cribs" for "crim" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cribs" vs "crim" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "cribs" and "crim" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cribs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crim" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #15,361 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cribs" and "crim" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crim 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 #15,361 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.