crimevscroneWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,362
“crime” frequency rank
#47,002
“crone” frequency rank
48364
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crime crone
Definition A specific act committed in violation of the law, especially criminal law. An old woman.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
crime
5 ch
crone

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. crime (/kɹaɪm/) and crone (/kɹoʊn/) 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 48364, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crime is recorded at frequency rank #1,362, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɹaɪm/. crone is at rank #47,002, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹoʊn/.

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 48364, this pair ranks #193,743 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crime vs crone

Shared letters: cer. Private to "crime": im. Private to "crone": no.

"crime" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "crone" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crimeccrime · cirme · criem · crimme · crmie · crrime · rcime
  • croneccrone · corne · crnoe · croen · cronne · crrone · rcone

Frequency comparison

crime#1,362
crone#47,002

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "crime" and "crone" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kɹaɪm/ versus /kɹoʊn/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "crime" or "crone"?
"crime" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,362 in our English list, against #47,002 for "crone". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering crime vs crone

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 “crime” 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