Which to use
“crisps” is a noun and “crispy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,720
- “crisps” frequency rank
- #17,807
- “crispy” frequency rank
- 43527
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crisps | crispy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of crisp | Having a crisp texture; brittle yet tender. |
Where the eye mixes crisps and crispy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. crisps (CCVCCC) and crispy (CCVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between crisps and crispy
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crisps is /kɹɪsps/ while crispy is /ˈkɹɪs.pi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “crisps” becomes y in “crispy”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43527, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crisps is recorded at frequency rank #25,720, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɹɪsps/. crispy is at rank #17,807, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɹɪs.pi/.
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 43527, this pair ranks #239,187 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of crisps vs crispy
Shared letters: ciprs. Private to "crisps": -. Private to "crispy": y.
"crisps" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC · "crispy" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "crisps" and "crispy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "crisps" vs "crispy" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "crisps" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crispy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #239,187 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crisps" and "crispy" 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 #239,187 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.