crossevscrossedWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: crosse is a noun, crossed is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“crosse” is a noun and “crossed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,192
“crosse” frequency rank
#3,936
“crossed” frequency rank
37128
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crosse crossed
Definition A lacrosse stick. simple past and past participle of cross

Letter map: crosse vs crossed

Shared letters muted; letters that set crosse and crossed apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. crosse runs 6 letters (CCVCCV) against crossed's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
crosse
7 ch
crossed

Role in the sentence - crosse and crossed

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: crosse is anoun and crossedaverb. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “crosse” sits inside “crossed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crosse is recorded at frequency rank #33,192, classified as anoun. crossed is at rank #3,936, tagged as averb, pronounced /kɹɒst/.

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 37128, this pair ranks #297,158 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crosse vs crossed

Shared letters: ceors. Private to "crosse": -. Private to "crossed": d.

"crosse" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "crossed" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crosse ← ccrosse · corsse · crose · crrosse · crsose · rcosse
  • crossed ← ccrossed · corssed · crosed · crosesd · crossde · crossedd · crrossed · crsosed

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "crosse" for "crossed" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "crosse" is a noun and "crossed" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "crosse" vs "crossed" - which ranks higher?
"crossed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,936 in our English list, against #33,192 for "crosse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "crosse" and "crossed".

  • Full dictionary entry for "crosse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crossed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #297,158 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crosse" and "crossed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crone vs crosse". 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 #297,158 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