cribsvscritWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“cribs” and “crit” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#41,067
“cribs” frequency rank
#38,793
“crit” frequency rank
79860
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cribs crit
Definition plural of crib Criticism.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cribs and crit apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
cribs
4 ch
crit

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. cribs (/kɹɪbz/) and crit (/kɹɪt/) 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 79860, 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/. crit is at rank #38,793, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹɪt/.

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 79860, this pair ranks #21,112 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cribs vs crit

Shared letters: cir. Private to "cribs": bs. Private to "crit": t.

"cribs" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "crit" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cribsccribs · cirbs · crbis · cribbs · cribss · crisb · crribs · rcibs
  • critccrit · cirt · critt · crrit · crti · rcit

Frequency comparison

cribs#41,067
crit#38,793

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cribs" and "crit" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kɹɪbz/ versus /kɹɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cribs" or "crit"?
"crit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,793 in our English list, against #41,067 for "cribs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cribs vs crit

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cribs” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list