Which to use
“crooks” and “crows” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,766
- “crooks” frequency rank
- #15,596
- “crows” frequency rank
- 37362
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crooks | crows |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of crook | plural of crow |
Where the eye mixes crooks and crows
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: crooks vs crows
A purely visual mix-up. crooks (/kɹʊks/) and crows (/kɹəʊz/) 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 37362, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crooks is recorded at frequency rank #21,766, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɹʊks/. crows is at rank #15,596, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹəʊz/.
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 37362, this pair ranks #295,229 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of crooks vs crows
Shared letters: cors. Private to "crooks": k. Private to "crows": w.
"crooks" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC · "crows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "crooks" and "crows" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "crooks" vs "crows" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "crooks" and "crows" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "crooks" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crows" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #295,229 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crooks" and "crows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Croke vs crooks". 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 #295,229 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.