crisesvscrispsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#13,492
“crises” frequency rank
#25,720
“crisps” frequency rank
39212
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crises crisps
Definition plural of crisis plural of crisp

Where the eye mixes crises and crisps

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
crises
6 ch
crisps

Visual trap between crises and crisps

A purely visual mix-up. crises (/ˈkɹaɪsiz/) and crisps (/kɹɪsps/) 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 “crises” becomes p in “crisps”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39212, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crises is recorded at frequency rank #13,492, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɹaɪsiz/. crisps is at rank #25,720, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹɪsps/.

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 39212, this pair ranks #278,765 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crises vs crisps

Shared letters: cirs. Private to "crises": e. Private to "crisps": p.

"crises" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "crisps" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crisesccrises · cirses · crisess · crisse · crisses · crrises · crsies · rcises
  • crispsccrisps · cirsps · cripss · crispps · crispss · crissps · crrisps · crsips

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "crises" for "crisps" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkɹaɪsiz/ versus /kɹɪsps/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "crises" vs "crisps" - which ranks higher?
"crises" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,492 in our English list, against #25,720 for "crisps". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "crises" and "crisps" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "crises" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crisps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #278,765 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crises" and "crisps" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crisps 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 #278,765 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list